Inferno
by geeklady
Summary: Sequel to Change of Mind. Set in season 4/5 of Supernatural. Buffy has made a new life for herself after the events of Change of Mind, but will the war between Heaven and Hell drag her back into a world she thought she left behind? Buffy/Dean
1. Chapter 1

**One year and Seven months after Dean coming back from Hell, One year and three months after Dean's visit to New York. **

**November 2009**

"Ugh. What time is it?" Buffy grumbled to herself, rolling to check the clock next to her bed. "Crap! Late late late," she repeated, running around her bedroom, throwing clothes on as fast as she could.

_Why today? _she thought to herself, with a groan. She applied her make up as fast as she could, and grabbed her hairbrush, running out the door thanking the PTB that she straightened her hair the night before.

Rushing out the elevator doors, she almost ran past the handsome man standing in her apartment lobby. Smiling at her, and handing her a coffee, he looked like a slice of heaven.

"Figured you'd need it," he dark-haired god explained, seeing the look of adoration on Buffy's face.

"Oh you have no clue," She replied, taking a sip of her coffee. "Josh, my dear, have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"Yes, well you can make it up to me by introducing me to the new hotty in your department," he said, with a laugh and a wink.

"Mark? I don't think he's gay. I mean, I'm pretty sure, especially since yesterday was the fourth day this week, he 'accidently' brushed his hand against my butt."

"Maybe he just appreciates a fit woman," Josh said with a pout, hailing a cab.

"I'm sure he does," Buffy replied, getting into the car. She sat in her seat, and fidgeted with her outfit. Somehow she managed to throw on something that looked half decent.

_Out of all the days to be late, why today?_ She asked herself, with a sigh.

"Would you stop?" Josh demanded with exasperation. "You've got this! You really have nothing to worry about, everyone loves you!"

"Not Karen! She's out for blood, I just know it!"

"Well fuck Karen!"

"Josh," Buffy said with a giggle.

"No, Buffy, I'm serious, if they are truly worried what Karen 'wears-the-same-skirt-three-days-in-a-row' Myers thinks, then both they and Karen can go fuck themselves," Josh finished with an obscene hand gesture, handing the cabbie his fee, with a generous tip, before stepping out of the vehicle.

Buffy scrambled out of the car, and stood in front of her office building nervously.

"Look Buff, you're going to be great. Just chill, relax, and at exactly 6 o'clock, we're going to get blitzed out of our minds. Either in celebration, or in mourning. Okay?"

Buffy laughed, "Okay, okay. I'll talk to you later."

Josh waved bye over his shoulder, already walking away to the coffee stand next door.

Making her way to the elevator, Buffy's phone chirped a message, "**Good luck, Buffy! Love Dawn (number one sister, ****extraordinaire****).**"

Buffy smiled to herself as she put her phone back into her pocket. Even after leaving the School, the Scoobies had all stayed in touch. Sure, at first they were shocked she chose to leave, but they all eventually came around. They agreed that Buffy had gone through enough.

They all supported her career change, and had all come to visit one time or another. It seems like it's every couple of weeks that Faith is in the area, ya know, 'for a hunt.' Buffy wasn't complaining. She may be out of the slayer bizz, but she was glad her pals were still around.

She had now been living the civilian life for a year and a half, and she was up for a promotion. A really, really big promotion. She'd never had one before, so she was nervous as hell. Not that she could say that to Josh, or anyone else for that matter. Everyone at Ridge Brothers Co. thought she spent her time at the Slayer Institute as a Media Advisor.

Of course, they thought the Slayer Institute was just a school for wayward girls.

It had taken eighteen months, but Buffy had finally started to make a normal life for herself. She went to work, she socialised with co-workers, and she bought clothes without wondering how hard it would be to get demon blood out of the material.

Buffy had a normal life, but she hadn't done it for herself. She had done it for Dean.

For the past year and a half Buffy had been struggling against her Slayer instincts, trying to build herself a normal life. A life Dean would be proud of.

So here she was, living in New York City, working at an Marketing Firm, and possibly being promoted.

_Here goes nothing_

Twenty minutes later, Buffy came out of her bosses office with a giant grin. She was now the new West Coast Marketing Manager. All West Coast clients were now her responsibility, giving Buffy more career success than she ever had in her life.

_Take that Karen! Take that bitchy secretarial pool! _Buffy thought to herself.

Buffy literally skipped out of the office at 5PM, rushed home, trying to get ready in record time, as the phone rang.

She answered the phone, without looking at the caller, trying to frantically dry her hair.

"Hello?"

"I just don't get it. You didn't finish College, you have no experience in Marketing, how in hell have you been promoted to region manager?" Dawn questioned, incredulously.

"Hi Dawn," Buffy sang into the phone, before answered Dawn's question, "Dumb luck? Honestly, I'm as shocked as you are. Bad ass monster killer turned marketing mogul. Who knew?"

Dawn snorted her amusement, "yeah, well congrats and all that."

"Jeez, don't sound too enthused," Buffy said, a little hurt.

"Sorry, it's been a busy week," Dawn replied with a yawn.

"Yeah? What's been going on?"

"Nuh-uh. No Slayer business for you, Miss 'Marketing Mogul'," Dawn sarcastically replied.

"Ugh, whatever. I gotta go anyway. Josh is meeting me downstairs in 15."

"Fine, call me tomorrow when you're dying from a monstrous hangover. I think I'll need the laughs."

"Bye, Dawn," Buffy replied briskly.

"Tell Josh I said 'hi'!' Dawn shouted before Buffy had a chance to end the call.

Buffy met Josh downstairs at exactly 6PM. She ran up to him, and jumped into his arms, almost knocking him to the ground.

"I'm guessing it went good?"Josh laughed, wrapping his arms around Buffy.

"Let's put it this way, I'll be buying the drinks tonight," Buffy responded with a laugh, and a wink.

"Dawn said hi, by the way," Buffy commented, as they walked outside to hail a cab.

"And how is my favourite Summers?" Josh joked.

Buffy rolled her eyes, and laughed, giving the cabbie directions to their usual bar. "She's fine, just a bit exhausted from work."

They arrived to the bar, and quickly found their group of friends.

"The bitch got it!" Josh exclaimed to their friends, causing a round of cheering and congratulations.

When Buffy first moved to New York, many of her friends had offered to come with her, so she wouldn't be alone. She politely declined. She was determined to do it on her own.

Of course, Spike totally ignored her request, choosing to discreetly follow her around the city, making sure she was safe. It took two weeks of begging before he agreed to leave her alone.

_"Alright love, I'll leave you be, but I ain't goin far."_

Not long afterwards he accepted a teaching role at the New York Slayer Institute.

After those two weeks, Buffy was totally alone, for the first time in forever. She had no friends, and no family. That was until she got hired by Ridge Brothers Co. Within weeks, Josh had adopted her and taken her under his wing, showing her the best New York nightlife, and including her into his group of friends.

Buffy couldn't have been more grateful, and absolutely adored Josh.

Spike and Dawn both visited as much as possible. Spike was only a couple of blocks away, and managed to visit once every couple of weeks.

Dawn couldn't visit as much but in those visits, Dawn formed a strong bond with Josh, making him practically family to the Summers girls.

Buffy went to the bar to buy a round of drinks. As she waited to be served, she couldn't help but appreciate the normalcy of the moment. Buffy Summer the Vampire Slayer was drinking in her favourite bar in New York City, surrounded by friends, and celebrating her first work promotion. You think she would be happy.

After four hours, and many drinks later, Buffy decided to take herself home. Her tolerance for alcohol might have gotten better, but she was still a petit women. There was only so much drinking she could handle.

She said her goodbyes, declined all offers of an escort, and made her way outside. It had just gotten into winter, and was freezing, but Buffy had Slayer resistance and decided to walk home.

It wasn't long before she was joined by Spike.

"I should of known you'd be around," She slurred. She turned to look at her newly acquired companion.

Spike looked especially handsome. He wore his usual black jeans, and Dr. Martens, but he had matched it with a navy blue v neck, and short leather jacket.

"You shouldn't be walkin around alone, pet," Spike replied, walking closely to her. "Plenty of bad things that go bump in the night."

"Slayer, remember?" she replied, slightly leaning against Spike as they walked.

"Love, in this condition, you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag."

Buffy snorted in laughter, as they continued to walk towards her apartment.

"Why do you look so nice?" Buffy asked, taking in his appearance again.

"Had a date," Spike replied, shyly.

"Yeah?" Buffy asked, surprised. She pushed away from him to get a better look at his face. "Who's the lucky girl."

"Nurse at the Institute."

"Slayer?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "Seems I got a type."

Buffy smiled, as she leant back at this side, "How'd it go?"

Spike sighed, as he lit up a cigarette, "it went. Not much to say, really."

"I'm sorry to hear it."

"Sorry to tell it, love. She's a nice bird."

They walked the rest of the way to Buffy's apartment in silence, they made their way inside and Buffy got them a couple of beers.

They spoke about their day, and Spike congratulated Buffy on her promotion.

He quickly finished his beer, set it down, and moved closer to Buffy, pulling her into an embrace, and leaning down to kiss her.

"Spike, stop," Buffy said weakly, not pushing him away.

Spike growled closely to her mouth, "why?"

"You know why," she replied tensely, "We've been through this before. I can't give you what you want."

Spike sighed, and pulled away slightly, looking down at her.

"Pet, I know your heart is still with 'im," Spike started, instantly making Buffy uncomfortable. She tried to move away, but he held her back, "No, Buffy, listen. I know you still love 'im. I can't begrudge you that."

Buffy looked down at Spike's arms, as they were wrapped around her.

"Not asking for anything, Buffy. Just this."

Spike loosened one of his arms, and lifted Buffy's head towards his, causing their lips to meet.

Buffy's guilt had quickly melted away as their kiss deepened. Spike brought his left arm to circle her waist, and had his right hand tangled in her hair. He gave it a tight tug, causing her to moan, and giving him better access to her mouth. He lowered both hands to her hips, grabbing her shirt and lifting it up over her head, barely stopping their kissing while doing so.

They had slowly moved themself towards the lounge room. As Spike's heels hit the couch, Buffy gave him a firm shove, causing Spike to fall onto the cushions. The aggressive move brought a smile to his face.

"There's my girl," he muttered as Buffy straddled him, capturing his mouth with hers.

Buffy quickly took off Spike's shirt, and started on his pants. She had him undressed with seconds, and started undoing her own clothes.

As the last of Buffy's clothes hit the floor, Spike grabbed her by the ass, and spun them around, so Buffy was bent over the side of the couch, facing away from him. With a hard kiss to the neck, Spike pushed into Buffy, causing her to cry out in pleasure. He smashed into her again and again, quickly bringing her over the edge. As the waves of pleasure slowed, she noticed that Spike was moving them to her bedroom.

Spike sat down on the bed, and pulled her into his lap, so that she straddled him. Looking him in the eyes, Buffy slowly began to ride him, building up momentum. Her mouth popped open in a moan, as Spike bucked up to meet her thrusts. He sat up and caught her in a kiss, still meeting her stroke for stroke. He made trail of kisses down the side of her face to her neck, his tongue finding the scar on her neck. He bit down suddenly, not piercing the skin, and sucked hard. The sudden sensation caused Buffy to gasp, gripping Spike's back, and clenching her legs.

With a growl, Spike flipped them, so Buffy was beneath him on her back. With quick urgent thrusts, he reach completion, burying himself deep inside her, moaning.

They both collapsed on the bed, still wrapped in each other. As they laid there, Spike's hand moved around Buffy's stomach, making slow sensual circles. Eventually exhaustion took them over and they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Buffy woke early the next morning, groggy and sick, with Dean's arm wrapped around her stomach

_ Dean? _Buffy thought to herself, half asleep.

She quickly turned to realise that she had fallen asleep with Spike.

_Dean's dead. _ The thought crashing into her suddenly.

Buffy dropped back to the bed, bringing her hands up to hold her head. It felt like someone was trying to drill into the left side of her brain.

_I'm never drinking again_.

She held her hands there a moment longer, before looking back down at Spike. At first glance, you wouldn't think he was a vampire. While he slept, he looked pure with his tussled bleach white hair, and pale muscled skin. He looked perfect, she thought to herself drowsily.

She had started sleeping with Spike a month earlier. Not consistently, but every now and then. She had been lonely for a while, finding it hard to connect with any man she tried to date. It's not like they could bond over shared experiences.

So slowly, Buffy and Spike rekindled their relationship. It wasn't like their relationship in Sunnydale. That was a relationship of destruction and self loathing. This was something else. Something happier but Buffy still had reservations. It was clear that Spike still loved her, and while she really did care for him this time around, she didn't love him back. She couldn't love him back.

Sometimes, she wished that she did love Spike. Maybe then they could be something close to normal. He deserved that much.

But she couldn't. Not when her heart still belonged to someone else.

She knew she should stop what was going on between them before he got hurt, but she couldn't. In the past year, she had come to rely on Spike more than anyone else in her life. He was the rock she could always depend on. She just didn't know how to let him go.

Buffy laid in Spike arms for an hour or so before she felt him stir behind her. He leaned closer to her, and kissed her shoulder.

"I know you're awake, pet," he whispered into her ear.

"Wasn't trying to hide it," she murmured, "just trying not to die."

Spike chuckled, "gotta say, really loving these roller shutters. Wakin' up on fires not a good experience. Trust me."

Buffy snorted and replied, "better be grateful. Know how much it cost to get them up here?"

Spike laugh again while checking the time.

"Bugger," he said, rolling out of bed, "look, love, I best be off."

"It's 10AM. You'll fry," she remarked, as he went in search for his clothes.

"Don't worry, I'll be taking the sewers," he yelled from the lounge room, before coming back into Buffy's room. He was carrying a glass of water and some panadol. He placed them on her bedside table, "I gotta get back to the school. Some sort of meetin'. I'll catch you later, pet."

He kissed her on the top of her head as he was about to leave causing Buffy another twinge of guilt.

Spike noticed, and sighed. He sat down beside her, and pushed a bit of stray hair out of her face.

"Pet, this thing between us. It's different from last time. You're not using me. We're just mates, looking for companionship," he explained, softly.

"You know that's not true, Spike," Buffy said, quickly, "you love me. And I'm using that love. Again."

"I love you, it's true. But I know how you feel. I ain't looking for you to love me," Buffy looked at him, disbelieving. "Honestly, Buffy," He insisted, moving his hand to her waist. "Maybe one day, you'll love me. One day when you've stopped mourning Dean Winchester," Buffy flinched away at Dean's name, but Spike continued on. "Maybe one day. But whether that day comes or not, I'd rather have half of you, than none of you at all."

"That doesn't make it okay," she replied, softly, "I don't want to hurt you," she finished, weakly.

Spike smirked, "Then, don't. 'M a big boy, pet. It's okay."

Spike looked at Buffy with such sincerity and love, it broke her heart. She cursed herself for not being able to love the man in front of her.

She slowly nodded, accepting Spike's explanation. He looked relieved and got off the bed, ready to leave.

"Rest up, Pet," he said softly, shutting the door behind him as he left.

Buffy laid in bed a moment longer, before reaching into her bedside table and bringing out a stack of photos.

While travelling with the Winchesters, they had stumbled into this dinky town, and found a store that sold those old Polaroid cameras. Buffy instantly bought one, and spent the next two weeks taking as many photos as she could.

There was a photo of Faith in the Impala, with her legs up, and feet stick out the open window.

A photo of Sam, sitting at his computer doing research.

A photo of Dean, mouth wide open taking a bite of a burger.

A photo of all four of them, standing next to the Impala. They were parked at dingy gas station. Buffy had insisted on the photo, and had asked the attendant to take it for them

Buffy had gotten to the last photo, smile on her face, but tears still streaming down her face. The last photo was of her and Dean. It was the first night they had made love, and the only photo that Dean had insisted on.

Dean had his arm wrapped around her ribs, with Buffy pressed firmly against his chest. They both had giant grins plastered on their faces.

Buffy looked at the photo, tracing Dean's face with her fingers. She couldn't forget anything about him. She still carried him around with her everyday

She wasn't being completely honest to Spike, not really, not when it came to why she couldn't stop feeling guilty. She felt bad about using Spike, that part of was true, but even after a year, she still felt like she was betraying Dean.

He was dead, she knew that, so why couldn't she stop loving him?

**So that's the first chapter. **

**I know I've been gone a while, and updates may come a little bit far apart, but I am almost finished the next chapter so that bodes well, I guess. Hope you liked it! **

**Please review and follow. **

**Thanks! **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

It had been two weeks since Buffy's promotion, and everything was going great. Sort of.

Work was great, Josh was great, New York was great, but her Scooby friends? Not so great.

She could barely get them on the phone, and when she did, there was always some emergency that meant a end to an already short conversation.

Buffy may not be an active Slayer anymore, but she couldn't turn off that voice in her head that shouted 'DANGER'. She tried to push it from her mind, tried to stick to her normal life, but she just couldn't. You can take the girl out of Slaying, but you can't take the Slayer out of the girl.

So she kept trying. Every day she called, and every day she was brushed off.

In an act of desperation, she went to the New York Slayer office. She was quickly asked to leave, and when she tried to demand answers, she was pushed out the door. Forcibly.

Something was happening, something big. Sure, she was retired, but that doesn't mean she couldn't know what was going on, right?

That was her reasoning for breaking into Spike's basement apartment. He was the lead trainer at the New York branch, and worked closely with Cleveland. He would have to know something, _anything_.

Buffy had planned the break in for days, waiting until she knew Spike would be at the Institute, and took a person day from work.

She couldn't handle being kept in the dark anymore.

She worked her way through the apartment, shuffling through any papers she could find, picking up random books, and putting them back down again.

"There's got to be something," she muttered to herself, putting down another note pad full of scribbles.

"Lost somethin', pet?" A voice sounded from the door way, causing Buffy to jump in shock.

_Good one, Buf. Letting a vamp sneak up on you, like some sort of newbie_

"Ah um, of course not. I've come to see you, obviously," Buffy replied, lamely.

"That right? Come to see Ol Spike at 3PM on a Thursday? Not really my office hours, love."

"What are you doing home? Why aren't you at your _actual_ office?" Buffy demanded, getting defensive.

"Well when a certain Slayer starts asking unusual questions, a fella might start getting suspicious. Only took a quick call to your office to realise you weren't there. Put two and two together, and look what I found," he explained, with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

Buffy pouted, cursing herself for not keeping up with her training. Buffy in her prime wouldn't of allowed herself to get caught out like this. _Must be slipping in my old age_.

"Now pet, why don't you explain why you're ruffling through my possessions."

Buffy sighed in frustration, "you know why! Something is happening, and no one is telling me anything! It's so frustrating, so so.." She trailed off, not being able to find the right word.

"Civilian," Spike finished.

"Yeah! Civilian."

"That's what you are, love. Civilian. Slayer business not your business anymore."

"It'll always be my business. It's in my blood," Buffy tried to explain, desperately.

Spike looked at Buffy sympathetically for a moment, and then up at the ceiling in resignation.

"Bloody hell," he muttered softly, so soft Buffy barely picked up on it.

He looked back at her, "sit down," he instructed, pointing to the couch.

She moved quickly, taking a seat.

"Look pet, if any of the Scoobs know I'm tellin' you this, I'm as good as dust, got that," Buffy nodded quickly.

"Alright," he said hesitantly. "Something big IS coming. Bigger than anything we've ever dealt with before. The Apocalypse is coming."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

"No love, you're not listening. Not _A _Apocalypse. _THE_ Apocalypse. The Biblical kind."

Buffy knitted her eyebrows together in confusion, "huh?"

Spike sighed, which is strange since he really didn't need to breath, "Lucifer raising from below to make war on the Angel's above."

Without a moment's hesitation Buffy cracked up laughing. Yeah, right. The Devil raging war against Heaven. Buffy looked to Spike, still laughing. His serious face caused her to abruptly stop.

"You're serious?"

"As a heart attack, love."

"What? How?"

"Apparently all it takes is for a couple of seals to break. Some are already broken, break a few more and Bob's your uncle, Lucifer is on vacation," Spike explained, reaching for his cigarettes.

Buffy mind was racing. This was bad. Really bad. The urge to do something was overwhelming her.

Spike saw the conflict in Buffy's eyes, and quickly dropped his cigarette in a nearby ash tray, and grabbed Buffy by the shoulders, "no," he said seriously.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Buffy asked, eyes narrowing.

"You're not a part of this, do you hear me?" Spike replied, slightly angry, "you got out, now stay out. There's hundreds, maybe thousands of Slayers out there. There's nothing you can do that they can't. Stay out of it," he finished, between clenched teeth.

Buffy took a breath, trying to calm her mind. Spike was right. She was retired. Even if she wanted to be back in the fight, she hadn't even trained in two years. She would be an easy target.

"Right. You're right," she mumbled.

"Damn right I am," Spike mumbled back in reply.

"I-I should go. I'm sorry about, ya know, breaking in and going through your stuff."

Spike snorted in laughter.

"S'right Slayer. Go home, and stay out of it."

It had been three weeks, but Buffy couldn't get her conversation with Spike off her mind.

No matter what she was doing, who she was with, all she could think about was her friends and family going into battle without her.

Without meaning to, she starting training again. It started off with going for a jog after work, and then evolved into turning her spare room into a makeshift gym. Soon enough, she was going for late night 'walks'. She told herself it was to clear her head, but deep down she knew what she was doing.

On her third night out, she was attacked by a vampire. It was drawn by her Slayer blood, it could barely help itself. The fight was short but sweet. She may be out of practice but she had been an active Slayer for most of her adult life. It's not something you forgot.

On her sixth night out, she had taken down her fourth vampire in a park near her apartment, when she felt the presence of a master vamp trailing her. This one she knew.

"Spike, stop being creepy," she called to the darkness.

A chuckle came in reply, as Spike stepped out from behind a group of trees. "S'not creepy."

"Watching me behind a bunch of trees? Yeah, that's creepy."

"My ladies have been reporting low vamp sightings. Thought I'd investigate," he explained, lighting a cigarette.

Buffy at least had the decency to look embarrassed. She had been busted. Big time.

"What are you doing, Buffy?" Spike asked, dropping his joking manner.

Buffy immediately got defensive, "My job!" She saw Spike was about to retort, but didn't let him get a word in as she continued, "no wait, let me explain. I'm not looking to get involved, I said I wouldn't, but what if I have to? I can't let myself get out of shape. That's all this is. A work out."

"A work out?" Spike asked with a smirk, "Love, if you wanted a work out, all ya had to do is ask," he finished with a raised brow. He slowly sauntered over to her, oozing sexual prowess.

"Spike, be serious," she said meekly, as he reached her.

"I am," he replied, wrapping an arm around her waist, putting his head to neck to lick and bite and softly.

Buffy tried to keep back a moan, and failed. "'M not going to stop patrolling," she managed to get out.

Spike lifted his head to look at her, "Never thought you should've. You were always at your best with a stake in your hand," he replied seriously. "Not to mention the pheromones you give off when you're all hot and bothered," he finished, leaning down to kiss her roughly.

Buffy kissed him back just as intently, remembering Faith's words all those years ago.

_"Isn't it crazy how slayin' just always makes you hungry and horny?" _

Buffy wasn't hungry.

She pulled away quickly, breathing heavily. "Let's go back to the apartment," she said huskily.

"Let's stay here," Spike replied, leaning down to kiss her, picking her up as he did. She wrapped her legs around his waist in agreement, as he carried her further into the secluded park.

He pushed her against the rough bark of a nearby tree, pulling back to lift up her skirt, and look in her eyes. "Reminds me of the first time," he said, looking at her intently.

Instantly Buffy's mind shifted back to the night they had first slept together. They had started against the wall, and literally brought the house down with their passion. She was never proud of that time in her life. Spike had been soulless, and misguided, but he had loved her.

He loved her, and she had used it.

Her thoughts were cut off as Spike thrust deeply and roughly inside her, causing her to moan loudly.

Spike chuckled, "not so loud, love." Buffy bit down into his skin to stop herself from crying out loud as he continued a rough and fast rhythm. She bit harder, tasting blood. Spike moaned loudly into her neck at the sharp pain.

He dropped her to the ground, and quickly followed her, climbing on top. They stayed in that position for what felt like hours, wrapped in each other. Buffy hooked her ankles around his back, gripping his hair with one hand. Spike had his arms wrapped across her back, griping her almost painfully. They climaxed within moments of each other, collapsing to the ground, with Spike sprawled across her.

They took their time to get back up, and as they stoop, Spike wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "c'mon love, I'll walk you home."

Buffy smiled. It wasn't like the first time at all.

She may not love him, not the way he wanted but it was nice to be with someone that she cared about, who also cared about her. Spike understood her in ways that most people never will. It'll end some day, but until then, she was happy to stay in his arms.

Buffy's life continued like this for weeks. She went to work during the day, hung out with her friends in the early evening, and her nights were spent either patrolling or with Spike.

It was an unusual life, one mixed with the normal and the supernatural, but, surprisingly, it worked.

For the first time, in a long time, she was content.

Sometimes, she could even forget about Dean.

Not very often, and not for very long, but sometimes her mind wouldn't be with Dean. It was in the moment of combat, or passion that her mind let him go for the moment.

Even when Angel died she hadn't had this overwhelming pain.

With Angel, it was guilt. She was the one who sent him to Hell. Maybe if she hadn't, she wouldn't have been as heartbroken as she was.

Dean was different. She wasn't the one who sent him to Hell, but the pain of his death overshadowed anything she felt when Angel died.

Two years later and she never truly let him go. She closed her heart off and kept going through life as if she didn't need it.

She was happier that way. She didn't want to replace Dean. She never could.

Sometimes she felt guilty when she was with Spike. Not just because it was unfair to him.

She felt guilty because she was betraying Dean. She couldn't even tell herself that he would of wanted her to move on. He would hate that she had taken comfort in a vampire's arms.

But whether she wanted to or not, she had to live without Dean.

Buffy did the best she could. Dean might hate that she was with a vampire, but he would still want her safe and happy.

Right?

**APRIL 2014 **

Every day on this goddamn planet was a nightmare. A living nightmare, reminding him that in the end, we're all holes in the ground.

Maybe a slightly pessimistic way to look at it, but when your fresh out of hell, with a baby brother drinking demon blood, it's hard to think positive.

Seriously, is the world ever going to stop being fucked up?

Dean had been sitting in the same bar stool for an hour and a half, drinking whisky after whisky, always hoping the next glass would be the glass that relaxed him.

This had been life for the past couple months. Hell, for the past year and couple of months. Ever since New York..

Sammy and his Hell bitch just make it worse.

You trust somebody, and they do nothing but throw it in your face.

He trusted Sammy with his life, and then caught him sucking blood from a fucking demon.

And then he left. Chose that Hell bitch over his own brother.

He couldn't even bring himself to think about.. _her_.

Dean shook his head, and sipped his drink.

He'd lost the two people he cared about most. Maybe the only two people he cared about, other than Bobby.

_What you expect? An alcoholic hunter, who tortured people for fun. Who would want you?_

Dean tried to block the dark thought out, with a quick skull of his drink. He finished it off, appreciating the burn as it slide down his throat. Signalling for bartender for another, he looked around the bar, hoping to distract himself from his grim thoughts.

In the far corner, Dean noticed a pretty blonde.

She might not be his pretty blonde, but she'll do.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Ruby sat beside Sam, as he held his head in his hands.

"He called me a monster, Ruby."

"He just doesn't understand. He will, once he sees all the good you can do," she replied, reassuringly.

Sam looked up at her, with a smile and utter trust in his eyes.

Ruby smiled back, and leaned in to kiss him

_Fucking idiot._

* * *

"We have to tell Buffy."

"No, we don't."

"Are you kidding? This is serious, she needs to know."

"W-we don't know anything yet!"

"We know enough!"

"Buffy is out, she's happy! We can't do this to her again."

"Faith is right, Wills. I know you want her to be free, and happy, and all that jazz, but this is her sister. We have to tell Buffy."

Willow's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Yeah," she sighed, "We have to tell Buffy."

* * *

"Mr Spike?"

Spike smirked at the name the receptionist had assigned to him. Little slip of a girl tried her hardest to be professional, but it's a bit hard when addressing a Vampire without a last name.

"Yes, love?"

Lily blushed, before responding, "The Cleveland office called for you. They said it's urgent."

Spike frowned as he walked towards his office.

_This can't be good_

* * *

"Sam!"

Sam turned to the banging coming from the door, "Dean?" The blood rushed to Sam's head, blurring out any sound except the pounding in his ears.

Ruby grabbed his arm, swinging him back to Lilith, "What are you waiting for?! Now! Sam, now!"

"You turned yourself into a freak. A monster. And now you're not gonna bite? I'm sorry, but that is honestly adorable," Lilith mocked, laughing at him.

Sam's heartbeat quickened, rage fuming at the bottom of his chest. Without knowing, his eyes had turned black as he flung his full power at the blonde demon in front of him.

* * *

"There are other options," Castiel insisted firmly.

"One of those options have been taken out our hands, Castiel, and the other isn't available to us," Zachariah explained condescendingly, "although, we don't know how," he finished in a mutter.

"You're basically sending him to his death."

"Yes, we are. One little Winchester, for the rest of humanity. It's a price we're willing to pay."

"I won't let this happen."

"You don't have a choice!" Zachariah roared. "You think God saved you? Well why do you think He saved _them_? This is the plan Castiel! This is **meant** to happen! So either you help, or you get out of the way!" With that, the sound of wings announced his departure.

* * *

Dawn struggled against the constraints from her ropes, her swearing muffled by the cloth in her mouth.

_Buffy isn't even an active Slayer anymore! Why am I __**still**__ being kidnapped?!_

Her head had been covered with a disgusting, old potato bag. _I mean, seriously, how cliché_.

She'd been taken from outside Cleveland Hopkins Airport two days ago, and had been stashed in the boot of a beat up old car. What had started as a standard Slayer Recruitment, had turned a lot darker.

Dawn's thoughts were interrupted by a set of footsteps.

After a couple of hours in the car, she had been removed and taken into a house. At least, that's what it felt and sounded like. She was a shoved onto a bed, and tied down. And that was it.

For two fricken days.

A set of unknown hands lifted her up, and sat her on the edge of the bed, while she shook with protest.

"Get your demony hands off the goods!"

A soft voice chuckled.

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions," The bag was lifted from Dawn's head to reveal a pretty young woman with long, flowing, blonde hair. "I'm sorry for the dramatics, but you are a hard girl to get a hold of," she said with a sweet smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Dawn muttered, looking at her filthy surroundings, "Who are you? What do you want? Why am I here? and also, who the hell do you think you are?!"

The lady laughed, untying Dawn's restraints. "So many questions. Please Dawn, relax. I really mean no harm. You're here for a very important reason. You're going to save the world."

Dawn paused from her inspection of the room, "Huh?"

"You are more powerful than you could imagine. A mystical, beautiful key."

Dawn flinched at the last word, a horrified look crossing her face, "woah, hold up, one blonde lady already tried to use my keyness and that was enough for me, thanks. Plus, you can't even do the ritual. Time periods over, buddy, so why don't you let me go before you end up like the last Hell Goddess who tried to kidnap me."

The blonde lady laughed, "Oh Dawny, you don't understand. That was my mistake, I should of explained sooner. I'm not a Hell Goddess. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm an Angel."

"Riiight. An Angel. Here to save the world."

"I know it's hard to believe, but I have been sent by the one true Lord to help you accept your destiny. The monks created more than just a human girl when they created you. So much more," She whispered the last words as she knelt down for face Dawn, "You're a vessel."

"A what?"

Laughing at Dawn's confused expression, she stood back up, "don't worry, all will make sense soon. But first, introductions. You may call me Meg."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"I'm sorry, Dean," Sam said, brokenly. Dean's reply was interrupted by a brilliant white light shooting up from the ground.

"Sammy, let's go!"

The light grew brighter, blinding the brothers.

"Dean, he's coming!"

The room filled with light, as the boys ran to the door. It slammed shut and locked, trapping Sam and Dean.

A high pitched sound caused them to drop to their knees, as everything flashed white.

"What the hell?!" Dean asked, looking around the plane.

"I don't know!" Sam replied, panicked.

The intercom crackled over their heads " Folks, quick word from the flight deck. We're just passing over Ilchester, then Ellicott City, on our initial descent into Baltimore—"

"Ilchester? Weren't we just there?"

The intercom was interrupted by a brilliant white light shooting from a building beneath them, the force of it causing the plane to go off tilt.

People are thrown from their seats, screaming, as the oxygen masks drop down.

"Wow! Did you hear about that terrorist attack in Maryland?" Josh asked from behind his news paper.

"Are you kidding? Jesus! In the past couple of days there has been nuclear testing, a hurricane, earth quakes and an outbreak of swine flu! What next?" Carla exclaimed.

"The world is really going to Hell," Josh agreed, putting down his newspaper and reaching for his coffee. "What you reckon, Miss Summers?"

Buffy had met with Carla and Josh for brunch and hadn't been paying attention to a word they said. She was power eating her nails while bouncing her knee up and down.

"Okay sweetie, no more coffee for you," Carla laughed, taking away Buffy's coffee.

"Huh? Oh God guys, I am so sorry. I haven't heard from Dawn or any of my friends for about a week and I'm starting to freak"

"Look, I can understand with everything going on that you might be worried, but if something happened they probably would of called. They might just be busy," Josh said, reaching over to grab her hand, trying to reassure her.

_Yeah unless there's a giant apocalypse going on and they are too busy dying to call._

"Yeah, you're probably right," She said, distractingly.

Buffy had never gone a week without hearing from her friends. Never. She'd atleast get her weekly newsletter from Andrew, but now? Nothing!

Even Spike had been avoiding him. He usually met up with her for patrol once or twice a week, but she hadn't seen him in days.

Josh was still looking at Buffy with worry, "I am going to kill myself for saying this, but how about some shoe shopping?"

Buffy answered with a huge smile.

Later that night, after two hours of patrol, Buffy decided to give up and go home, finding Spike sitting on her doorstep.

"We need to talk."

Buffy's heart dropped into her stomach.

"How could you keep this from me?!"

"Love, I only just found out myself."

"And how long has the gang known? Days? Weeks? Dawn goes missing and no one calls me? She's my sister!"

"I know, pet, I know. "

"No you don't know." Buffy replied angrily. "What happened?" She spat out.

"Lil Bit went on a routine requitement. Never came back. They think she was nabbed at the airport."

"But why?"

"Not sure, love. Something big is happening, real big."

Buffy had been pacing the living room, trying to think. "The earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. All of it," she said to herself, "It's connected, isn't it?" She said, looking up at Spike.

"Yeah." he replied reluctantly.

"One earthquake is sign of a huge apocalypse, but all of this? This isn't good."

Spike just sat silently, watching Buffy pace her living room.

"But why Dawn? She isn't a Slayer, she isn't a witch, and she can't even be used as a Key anymore."

"My bet? Nibblet was a swirling ball of energy. Power like that could be used, if you know how."

"Wow, thanks for the happy news," Buffy said, sarcastically, trying to keep the tears back.

Spike grabbed Buffy to stop her pacing, looking into her eyes, "We will find her. We always have."

Buffy nodded, reluctantly. "Pack your bags, Love, we're going to Cleveland. We'll figure it out."

" I just spoke to Spike, they're on their way," Faith said, taking a seat at the war table.

"We shouldn't have brought her here," Willow said, sadly.

"We couldn't have stopped her if we tried," Faith replied.

"Buffy needed to know, and at this point, we can use all the help we can get," Xander explained.

"This isn't right. Buffy shouldn't be coming back," Willow complained.

"Red, like it or not, Buffy has to be here. No doubt Dawnie has been kidnapped to get her attention. We need Buffy to get her back."

"I know, I just wish it wasn't true." Willow agreed, disparagingly.

"Can't believe I'm back here," Buffy mumbled under her breath.

Worrying about Dawn had almost made her forget about the last time she had been to the Slayer Institute.

The last time she was here, she left for good. She left to forget about Slaying. To forget Dean.

And now she was back. Because her sister was missing.

"Typical," Buffy grumbled.

"What's that, Love?"

"Nothing, just talking to myself."

"Well that's never a good sign," Spike tried to joke. Buffy cracked a small smile to humour him.

They walked through the main entrance into the lobby. "Ms Summers! It's so great to see you! You too, Mr Spike."

Buffy managed a small smile, "Hi Tiff, it's good to see you too."

Tiff's smile broadened, "Everyone is waiting for you in the war room."

"Thanks, I'll talk to you later."

Buffy and Spike travelled to the War Room in silence, noticing the solemn atmosphere.

"Looks pretty dead in here," Buffy commented.

"All this recent demon activity means overworked Slayers."

They arrived to the War Room to find all the Scoobies sitting around the table, talking quietly.

The door clicked closed, causing everyone to look up.

"Buffy" chorused through the room, with differently levels of happiness and worry.

"Hey gang," she supplied back.

"Buffy, we're so sorry," Willow started.

"Sorry for what? You didn't kidnap Dawn..Did you?" Buffy joked, sitting at the table.

"We're sorry for calling you back here. For not protecting Dawn."

"This isn't your fault, Wills. Really."

"Right, well, even with the terrible happenstance, it is still good to see you, Buffy."

Buffy smiled at her friends, "It's good to see you too Giles, all of you."

"The gang together again." Xander joked.

Buffy chuckled, but sobered quickly, "So what's going on? Fill me in here."

"Nothing good, I'm afraid," Giles replied, "We have had reports that it seems that this apocalypse is much more extreme than all previous apocalypses we have faced."

"Yeah, the whole bible schtick. Spike filled me in."

"Yes, well. We have been advised that the terrorist attack in Ilchester was actually part of a demonic ritual. A ritual to release Lucifer."

"Lucifer? Like the Devil, Lucifer?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"Preciously."

Buffy just sat shocked.

"I know this is a lot to take in, but it seems to be true."

"What has this got to do with Dawn?"

"At this point, we don't know. Other than an increase in demon activity and supernatural signs, we haven't seen anything that would indicate Lucifer's release."

"We got the girls out, looking for signs and askin questions, but so far we got squat," Faith explained.

"So far, we know some hunters were involved, but we don't know who, and we don't know why." Xander added.

_Hunters. Of course._

"Okay, so what can I do? I'm here to find Dawn, so what's the what?"

"Buff," Faith started hesitantly, "We need all the information we can get, and if some hunters were involved, Bobby might know something."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed carefully.

"I'm headin out there tomorrow, did you wanna come?"

Buffy stilled, feeling awkward and sad. She wanted to find Dawn, she would do anything to get her back, but the thought of going to Bobby's, it scared her.

She never went there with Dean, but she knew just seeing Bobby would hurt.

But she knew what she had to do.

"Yeah, yeah I'll go."

After a five hour flight, Faith and Buffy were in their rental car on the way to Bobby's salvage yard. They arrived in the late afternoon and sat in the car for a few minutes checking out the piles of destroyed vehicles.

"Neat place," Buffy said, clenching her hands in her lap.

Faith noticed, and leaned over to hold one of Buffy's hands in her own. "B, I know this is hard, but this is what we gotta do."

Buffy nodded, giving Faith a reassuring smile. Slowly, she got out of the car and walked to the door, with Faith close behind.

They knocked on the door, and waited.

After a couple of minute, they heard grumbling and movement on the other side, the door swinging open violently.

"What the bloody he-" Bobby stopped mid sentence in shock at seeing Buffy and Faith.

Buffy and Faith were more shocked.

"Oh god, Bobby, what happened?" Buffy exclaimed, looking down at Bobby in his wheelchair.

"Demon. What else?" He replied, going back into the house, indicating for the girls to follow.

Faith and Buffy took seats at the dining table, with Bobby parking his wheelchair in front of them at the table.

"What you two doing here? It's been almost two years."

The girls looked at each other, before replying, "We need help," Faith replied.

"Course you do," Bobby said dryly.

"We wouldn't of come if it wasn't important," Buffy commented.

"Ah don't mind me, I've turned into a bitter old man," Bobby said apologetically. Softer, he continued, "you two are always welcome."

The girls smiled in appreciation.

"What you need? I'll do what I can."

"More than anything, we need information. Someone has taken Dawn, and we think it has to do with Lucifer being released," Buffy explained, getting straight to the point.

"You know about that, huh?" Bobby replied, carefully.

"We know the basics, but we need to know more. We heard some hunters were involved. Do you know em?"

Bobby hesitated before answering, not wanting to give everything away.

"Yeah I do. And so do you. Sam was there. He survived, just."

Buffy sighed, "Of course a Winchester is involved," she muttered.

"I don't get why you think it has something to do with Dawn going missing. From what I heard, the girl is a bit of a trouble magnet."

"You're not wrong, but the timing is linked. Dawn went missing the day of the ritual."

"But she's just a girl, why would Lucifer want to take her?"

"She's not just a girl. She was originally a ball of mystic energy. If she fell into the wrong hands, we're talking major issues," Buffy explained.

"Alright, I'll keep my ear to the ground and see if I hear anything. In the mean time, I know where Sam is."

"Remind me again, why we couldn't fly?"

"The next flight wasn't until tomorrow and was way off course. Settle, B, we're almost there."

"Yeah, like nine hours later," she grumbled.

Faith laughed, "Look B, I know you're nervous but if Sam is caught up in this stuff, he might need our help."

"I never should of stopped helping him," she admitted quietly.

"What are you talkin about?"

"Sam. I should of stayed with him when Dean died. He just lost his brother and all I could think about was my pain. He's obviously in deep stuff, and I just bailed."

"B, don't think like that. You chose your path and Sam chose his, and that's it. You dealt with it the best way you could."

"I guess," Buffy agreed half heartedly.

"Really, Buff. I saw Sam after Dean died. He was a one man hunting machine. There was nothing you could of done to help."

"He could of died! He's only human!"

"And you could of died too, what good would it have done? Trust me, Buffy, the best thing you did was move to New York. I love having you back, don't get me wrong, but you needed out. Big time."

"I know, I know. I just can't help but think."

"Well quit thinkin, we'll be at the coordinates in 30 minutes. It's game time."

They parked the car at what looked like a war zone and started walking around.

"What the hell happened here?" Faith said, looking around.

"Nothing good."

They walked for twenty minutes before finding anyone. They were walking around the corner of a trashed building and almost ran right into two blonde women.

"Woah there ladies, can I help you?" The eldest woman asked with a slight southern twang to her voice.

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Buffy replied.

"This place is looking a bit trashed," Faith added.

"Nothing we can't handle," the younger one replied, a bit defensively.

"Look, we're not looking for trouble," Buffy said, arms up to show she meant no hostility.

"Now that's okay, what are you looking for? My name is Ellen, this is my daughter Jo."

"I'm Buffy, this is Faith." They noticed the look the two women shared. "You know us?"

"Know of you," Ellen replied, "If you were looking to help out, you're a couple hours too late."

"Actually, we're looking for Sam Winchester. Do you know him? Tall, hunk of a man?" Faith asked.

Ellen chuckled, "Yeah, we know him. You'll find him on the other side of town."

"Thank you," Buffy replied, pretty much jogging to catch Sam before he left.

*********************************************************************************  
Sam and Dean sat at the picnic table, Dean holding up War's ring.

"So, pit stop at Mount Doom?" Dean asked, in a lame attempt at a joke.

Sam sat quietly, not sure what to say.

"Dean-" He started to say after a long pause.

"Sam, let's not."

"No, this is important. I know you don't trust me," Dean looked away awkwardly, confirming the truth, "Just, now I realise, I don't trust myself either."

Dean looked up, confused.

"From the minute I saw that blood, only thought in my head...and I tell myself it's for the right reasons, my intentions are good, and it, it feels true, you know? But I think, underneath, I just miss the feeling. I know how messed up that sounds, which means I know how messed up I am. Thing is, the problem's not the demon blood, not really. I mean, I, what I did, I can't blame the blood or Ruby or...anything. The problem's me. How far I'll go. There's something in me that," he breathed out harshly, "scares the hell out of me, Dean. In the last couple of days, I caught another glimpse.."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm in no shape to be hunting. I need to step back, 'cause I'm dangerous. Maybe it's best we just go our separate ways"

Dean sat for a couple of moments, considering.

"Maybe you're right."

Sam scoffed, "I was expecting a fight."

"The truth is I spend more time worrying about you than about doing the job right. And I just, I can't afford that, you know? Not now."

Sam nodded, "I'm sorry, Dean."

"I know you are, Sam."

Sam went to move from the bench, when he saw something over Dean's shoulder that made him stop.

"Oh god."

"Sammy?"

After Sam didn't reply, Dean whipped around to see what he was staring at.

"Buffy." He whispered, climbing from his chair.

There she was, all 5'3" of her. Blonde, petite, beautiful and here.

"Dean?"


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry about the extreme delay in posting this. I started a new job and university this year and haven't had time for anything other than school and work. I am currently writing the next chapter so hopefully it won't be such a long wait. Hopefully.

In this chapter, I did gloss over a couple of episodes at the start of this season, but I am assuming you know what I have missed, if not, review and I would be glad to explain, but please remember that this is a fanfic, it will be different from the shows sometimes.

Anywho, please enjoy and leave reviews. They make me so very happy.

**Chapter Five**

"Dean? Wha-What?" Buffy couldn't stop the tears coming from her eyes.

"Buffy, what are you doing here?" Dean asked softly.

"What am I doing here?! What are YOU doing there?! You were dead! I saw you die!" By the time she had finished, she was almost doubled over as sobs wracked her chest.

"Buf-" Faith said, walking over to wrap her arms over Buffy, looking at Dean with confusion. "Why didn't you tell us you were alive?" She asked on Buffy's behalf, "how are you even here? We saw you dead. There was barely anything left."

The memory caused Buffy to sob harder.

The sight of Buffy, doubled over in her friends arms, distraught, broke Dean in two.

"Buffy, please."

"No! You don't get to say please!" She screamed, ripping herself out of Faith's arms. "How long? How long have you been alive?" She yelled pushing him in the chest, causing him to stumble back.

"A year," he replied hoarsely.

"A year," Buffy replied softly. "You've been alive for a year." She stopped and looked at him, really looked. He looked as broken as she felt. "How could you do this to me? Didn't you love me?" She barely asked above a whisper.

Dean looked at Sam, saw him shuffling awkwardly. He took Buffy by the arms and led her to the bench, and sat her down.

"Of course I loved you. That's why I didn't tell you."

Buffy scoffed, while sniffling, "That's fucking bullshit."

"No, no it's not," he sighed, wishing they could have this talk any other place but to here, "I went to New York, Buffy. I went to find you, and I saw you happy with a new job and a new life. And a new guy. I didn't want to ruin it for you. I thought you deserved more."

"New guy?"

"Tall? Dark hair?"

Buffy chuckled, unbelievably, "Josh? He's a work colleague. A _gay _work colleague."

"Oh," Dean responded, feeling like an idiot. "It doesn't change anything Buffy. No, listen to me. You were out of the life, you were happy and free! I couldn't drag you back into the darkness with me."

"That wasn't your choice to make!"

"YES it was! I couldn't do it, Buffy! I couldn't! Please understand," he pleaded.

Buffy's eyes wouldn't stop watering, but she couldn't say anything in return. She felt so betrayed and hurt.

Sam spoke up to break the silence, "Faith, why are you here? How did you find us?"

"We were looking for you, Stretch, hoping you could give us some info. Dawnie is missing, and we think you know something that could help us."

"Dawn is missing? Of course! Anything, what do you need?"

"What do you know about Lucifer rising?"

**********************************************************************************They had agreed to meet at a motel later on that night to discuss things privately.

During the thirty minute drive, Buffy didn't speak a word. She sat in the passenger seat, with a straight back, not moving a muscle.

"Alright, B, I know you just had huge news, but you're starting to freak me out."

After a moment of silence, Buffy replied, "did you know?"

Faith's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "About Dean? Are you kiddin? Of course not!" The passion in her voice was ripe with the truth.

Buffy sighed, and adjusted her body to slightly face Faith. "How could he do this to me?"

"From the sound of it, B, he just wanted to protect you. Dumb move but it came from the right place."

"It wasn't his choice," Buffy replied with gritted teeth.

Faith decided to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the ride.

"Dean, what are you gunna do?" Sam asked quietly, asking from the driver's side.

"Do? About what?"

"About Buffy."

"Nothin'. We're going to give them the information they want and send them on their merry way," Dean replied darkly, staring out the window.

"She isn't gunna like that."

"She doesn't have a choice."

The boys arrived at the motel before the Slayers and booked a room, waiting outside for the girls to arrive. Once the girls pulled up, they followed the boys inside the motel room.

"Okay, let's get down to business," Dean said coldly, causing everyone else in the room to feel immediately awkward.

"Fine," Faith said angrily, "we got word that you boys are messing in some bad shit again. Lucifer's out and all fingers are pointing at you."

Sam looked ashamed, "What's that have to do with Dawn?"

"The day the big guy gets released, Dawn goes missing. No spell can track her, so someone with muscle has her."

"I don't know what we can tell you. We don't know where she is." Dean grumbled.

"How about you tell us what happened in that Church, and why you were involved?" Buffy cut back, angrily.

Sam immediately looked ashamed and stared down at his feet.

"Spill it, Stretch," Faith demanded.

Over the next ten minutes, Sam told the Slayers about Ruby, his powers, the seals, the rise of Lucifer, and their role as vessels, as well as everything in between.

"Well, you fucked up," Faith said bluntly.

"Yeah, Faith, I know," Sam sighed.

"Do you?" She asked angrily, "every time you boys get mixed into something, we have to send our girls out to clean up the mess. You _seem _to think this shit is just centred in whatever backwards fuck town you're currently in, but in reality, a lot of good hunters, and slayers, die because of your fuck ups," Faith finished angrily, facing the boys.

Sam flushed with guilt and anger, "I was trying to do the right thing!"

"The **right thing** would've been to come to us! We have a **global **organisation fit for this stuff, but instead you trust a demon? Were you dropped on the head?" She shouted back.

Everyone else in the room was silent in the wake of Faith's anger.

"You're right," Sam finally admitted. "I fucked up," he said with slumped shoulders, sitting on the side of the bed.

Faith calmed herself. "Alright, boys, I think it's time to call that little Angel buddy of yours. He might know where to find Dawn."

Dean cleared his throat, from his station on the back wall. He had been uncharacteristically quiet during the conversation, spending his time trying to avoid Buffy's glare, "it's not that easy," he grunted out, "he doesn't always come."

"Well, try" Buffy replied, through gritted teeth. She hadn't forgotten the wrong that Dean had done to her, and they would handle it later, but for now, Dawn came first.

"Alright," he replied, clearly his throat again, more awkwardly this time, he yelled, "Cas, you there? Can you come down here for a quick moment?"

A moment passed and nothing happened.

"Grea-" Buffy started, before being interrupted by the sounds of flapping winds.

"Dean, please, I cannot come to you whenever you please. My task is important, and urgent."

"Yeah, Cas, I know, but I have some ladies here that have a few questions for ya."

Faith and Buffy had moved to stand next to each other and stare at the Angel standing before them.

"Ya feel that?" Faith whispered.

"Ya huh," Buffy replied, in awe.

"Makes me all headspiny,"

"Ya huh."

"Slayers," Castiel stated, looking at the girls, he turned to the blonde Slayer, "Buffy Summers. It is a true honour to meet you. I never had the pleasure while you were residing with us," emotion creeping into his voice.

Buffy flushed, "Thank you?"

The boys looked at each other, amazed that someone could have an impact on the usually stoic Angel.

"We had reports that you had retired? Why are you with the Winchesters?"

"I am, was, retired. I just need help," Buffy stammered out, overwhelmed.

"What can I do to help you?" Castiel asked.

"Oh with them, it's all with the 'help yous', but I get the cold shoulder," Dean complained.

"I don't understand? How have I affected the temperature of your shoulder?"

Dean moaned in annoyance as the Slayers giggled, and Sam chuckled.

Buffy soon become solemn again, "My sister has gone missing. We think she has been caught up with the Winchester's mess," she replied, throwing a bitter look in the boy's direction.

"Dawn Summers. The Key," Castiel added, almost to himself. "The Key has always worried us. We had no control over it, or its powers. The energies from the Key are immensely powerful, and completely uncontrollable once activated. I could see why someone would want to control it."

"Not _it_, **her**," Buffy said, stepping forward, "my sister, she's innocent."

"Yes, they usually are," Castiel replied. He thought quietly for a moment, before disappearing.

"What?" Buffy asked angrily, swinging around to face the boys.

"He does that sometimes," Dean explained, still actively not looking at Buffy.

The sound of wings announced Castiel's re-entrance, catching everyone off guard.

"I have spoken to some of my Brother's and Sister's. It would seem that Dean is not the only human able to contain Michael's essence. There are two others."

"What? What has this got to do with Dawn?" Buffy asked impatiently.

"Buffy, listen," Faith urged.

"Buffy Summer, you, as the first and original Slayer, have the powers and strength to contain Michael's vessel in the fight against Lucifer. As is Dawn," He explained.

"Wha- . No. Not again. They can't use her again!" She screamed, picking up Cas and smashing him against the motel wall. "Where is she?!"

Castiel was passive as he replied, "We don't know. We don't have her. She's been taken by the other side as a counter measure."

"Counter measure?" Buffy dropped Castiel, confused, "For what?"

"If Dean does not agree to become Michael's vessel, Dawn could be used instead. Lucifer knew that, so it is very likely that he has taken her hostage."

Buffy slumped to the ground in defeat. For the second time in her life, Dawn had been taken from her, to be used in the name of Evil.

Faith crouched down to Buffy and hugged her close, understanding her pain.

Sam looked at the girls in concerned, but continued the line of questioning, "Why haven't they taken Buffy? I mean, if she can be used as a vessel, wouldn't they try and take her too?"

"It seems that no one can trace Buffy. I, myself, can see her, but I cannot feel her, as I should."

"Red," Faith explained, "When Buffy moved to New York, we used every mojo in the book to keep her safe and hidden. Too many big baddies want their swing at the Big Dog."

Sam nodded, but was still confused, "I still don't understand how is Dawn strong enough to contain Michael? I can understand Buffy, but why Dawn?"

Castiel nodded, "As the Key, Dawn is already a vessel. From what I have learned, Dawn's human body was created by an order of Monks using Buffy's blood and essence. She is essentially, the perfect vessel to a higher being," He explained.

"And why not any other Slayers? They are just as strong as Buffy." Sam asked.

"The other Slayers, while seemingly the same as Buffy, are not. Until Buffy dies, she is the original and only Slayer, as far as mysticism is concerned. Any spell, incantation or ritual needing the Slayer would only be able to use Buffy."

Buffy laughed bitterly, "lucky me."

She stood up and started pacing the room. "okay, Lucifer has my sister, and I need to get her back." Turning to Sam and Dean, "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Dean asked roughly, finally looking at Buffy, "there's no plan here, sweetheart. You've got your information, now go on your merry way."

Everyone in the room stilled after Dean's harsh words.

"That's it?" Buffy stuttered out in shock.

"Yeah, that's it," he replied bluntly.

"How can you say that to me?" she asked, on the verge of tears.

"Easily. I didn't come looking for you for a reason, Buffy," Dean braced himself, "You make me weak."

Buffy sucked in a breath, "I've done nothing but protect and help you."

"And look where that got me? Dead!"

"How could you possibly blame that on me?" Buffy screamed in response.

"I am not blaming you," he replied calmly, "but maybe if you weren't around to distract me, I would have survived, and Sammy never would have gotten into this mess."

"Dean-" Sam said in shock, not believing his brother could say this to a woman he knew his bother loved.

"No, Sam, we did what we came to do, let's get out of here."

"Dean, wait," Buffy started.

"No! Don't you get it? I don't want you around! If we find anything out about Dawn, we'll contact the institute." He finished, as he left the room.

Sam looked apologetically at the girls, before leaving the room.

Buffy sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the closed door in shock.

"Did he ever love me?" She asked aloud, in a croaked voice.

"What the hell was that?!" Sam practically screamed once they were on the road.

"She was out, Sam. She was safe."

"So, what? You decided to crush her like that? Like she was nothing? I know you didn't mean any of that shit you said."

"Maybe I didn't!" Dean yelled back, "but when this shit is all done and dealt with, Buffy can go back to New York, have a nice life and forget I ever existed." He finished desperately.

"I don't think anyone could ever forget what you two had," Sam replied meekly, trying to get his brother to see reason.

"Just quit it, Sammy, it's done." Sam could practically hear the begging in his brother's voice.

"Yeah, whatever. Where we going?"

"I'm tired as hell, just going to find someplace to sleep and settle in for the night."

Within an hour, the impala had pulled into a dingy old hotel appropriately named the Century Hotel.

The boys walked up to the hotel, before being stopped by a man in religious garb.

"Excuse me, friend, but have you taken time out to think about God's plan for you?"

Dean stopped to look at him while replying, "too friggin' much, pal," before heading inside the reception room.

Dean lay in bed for hours trying to get to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Buffy the last time he saw her. Her face was white with shock, her face wet with tears and her eyes red from crying.

He knew he did the right thing, in the long run. He may have been brought back this time, but in this line of work, it was only time before some beasty got him. All he could do was protect Buffy from the same fate.

After hours of trying to sleep, Dean's eyes closed themselves and the sleep that had been escaping him quickly took over.

Dean woke slowly, pulling himself up from the springs of the hotel bed.

"Where'd my mattress go?" Dean asked himself groggily.

He removed himself and looked around the room to find it trashed. "Sammy?" he asked, now fully awake.

"Sammy!" Dean yelled, unsuccessfully searching the room for his younger brother.

Dean charged out of the room to find the streets abandoned. The buildings and streets were devastated, with broken windows, burnt out cars, and trash covering the surroundings.

Dean walked around the streets, trying to find anyone to explain what was going on. He walked for what seemed like hours before hearing the sound of glass smashing. Following the sound, Dean ran up an alley to find a little girl wrapped around her teddy.

Slowing down, Dean approached the girl carefully, "Little girl?"

She made no sound or movement as he approached, "are you hurt?" he asked, with no response.

"You know the not-talking thing is kind of creepy, right?"

Dean stopped just before the girl, finally getting her attention. She raised her head to look at him, blood dripping down her face. With a shriek the girl leaped at Dean, trying to stab him with a shard of glass that had been hidden by the teddy.

Reacting quickly, Dean grabbed her, smashing the girl against the brick wall beside them. Directly beside them, spray painted to the brick, was the word 'CROATOAN''.

"Oh crap."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Within moments, the alley way filled with infected humans. Dean dropped the girl and ran for his life, closely followed by the infected.

Winded, Dean ran into a street, to find it blocked off by a wire fence.

"No!" Dean screamed, banging his fists on the fence.

Turning around to meet his fate, Dean's attention was drawn to the sound of heavy machinery. The street soon became a battle zone, with several soldiers firing into the infected humans, quickly dispatching them.

In the chaos, Dean ran to the safety of a nearby alley and spent the next several hours trying to run and hide as much as he could. He finally found an opportunity to break through a fence and by that time night had already fallen.

On the other side of the fence was a warning sign for the hot zone Dean was leaving. The date on the sign caught Dean's eye, "August first, 2014," he said aloud, bewildered.

Not wanting to stay near the red zone for long, Dean quickly made his way away from the fence, eventually coming across a working car.

"Convenient," he muttered to himself while hot wiring the car. Immediately after the car started, he tried the radio and found only static, "That's never a good sign."

"Croatoan pandemic reaches Australia," a voice said from the passenger side.

Dean jumped in his seat, startled to find Zachariah sitting beside him, reading a newspaper. He recovered quickly, "I thought I smelled your stink on this _Back to the Future_ crap."

Zachariah continued to read aloud, ignoring Dean, "'President Palin defends bombing of Houston.' Certainly a buyer's market in real estate. Let's see what's happening in sports. That's right—no more sports. Congress revoked the right to group assembly, what's left of Congress, that is. Hardly a quorum, if you ask me."

"How did you find me?" Dean asked.

"Afraid we had to tap some unorthodox resources of late—human informants. We've been making inspirational visits to the fringier Christian groups. They've been given your image, told to keep an eye out."

Dean thought a moment before remembering a moment the night before, "the Bible freak outside the motel—he, what, dropped a dime on me?"

Zachariah grinned, "Onward, Christian soldiers."

"Okay, well, good, great. You have had your jollies. Now send me back, you son of a bitch."

"Oh, you'll get back—all in good time. We want you to marinate a bit."

"Marinate?"

"Three days, Dean. Three days to see where this course of action takes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that your choices have consequences. This is what happens to the world if you continue to say "no" to Michael. Have a little look-see," he finished before vanishing.

* * *

Dean drove all night to get to Bobby's house, the only place he could think to go to that wasn't the Slayer Institute.

He made his way up to Bobby's porch, knocking on the door, "Bobby? Bobby, I'm coming in!"

Walking around the trashed, abandoned house, Dean quickly found Bobby's wheelchair, tipped over with dried blood and bullet holes all through it.

"Oh no," he whispered to himself

Moving into the study, Dean opened a hidden compartment and pulled out his father's journal. On top of the journal is a photo of Bobby, Castiel and three other men, in front of a sign displaying their location.

"Camp Chitaqua."

* * *

Approaching the sign from the photo, Dean notices three men patrolling the area. Staying out of sight, Dean creeps through the grounds before spotting the Impala, smashed up and rusted to hell.

"Oh, baby, no," Dean said to the car, as he approached it. "What did they do to you?"

Behind him, Dean hears a shuffled noise, before being knocked unconscious.

* * *

Dean slowly woke up with a throbbing in his head, and the sun glaring in his eyes. Remembering what happened before he was attacked, he quickly became aware of his surroundings.

His hands were handcuffed to a ladder, and directly across from him..was him. Other Dean was sitting calmly, cleaning his gun.

"What the hell?" Past Dean asked Future Dean.

"I should be asking that question, don't you think? In fact, why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't gank you right here and now?" Future Dean asked, looking up from his gun.

"Because you'd only be hurting yourself," Past Dean weakly joked.

"Very funny."

"Look man, I'm no shapeshifter or demon or anything, okay?"

"Yeah, I know. I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water—nothing. But you know what was funny? You had every hidden lock pick, box cutter, and switchblade that I carry. Now, you want to explain that? Oh, and the, uh, resemblance, while you're at it?"

"Zachariah," younger Dean explained.

Older Dean stood up, and made his way to Younger Dean, "come again?"

"I'm _you _from the tail end of 2009. Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future."

"Where is he? Where is he? I want to talk to him."

"I don't know," he replied with a shrug.

"Oh, you don't know," Future Dean replied unbelievingly.

"No, I don't know. Look, I just want to get back to my own friggin' year, okay?"

"Okay. If you're me, then tell me something only I would know."

Dean thought for a second, before smirking and replying, "Rhonda Hurley. We were, uh, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink. And satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it."

"Touché. So, what, Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?"

"I guess. Croatoan virus, right? That's their endgame?"

"It's efficient, it's incurable, and it's scary as hell. Turns people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that."

"What about Sam?" Younger Dean asked anxiously.

Older Dean stilled for a moment before replying, "Captured, about a month ago. He was out looking for supplies with a team and they were ambushed, killed most of the team but took Sam."

"Why would they just take him?" Past Dean asked in confusion.

"No clue, they got their vessel, no clue why they'd need Sam."

"Wait, what? Sam isn't a vessel that makes no sense."

Older Dean scoffed, "musta hit you a little too hard. Not long after capturing the first ring, Sammy had a little dream. Since we're fit for Michael's holiness, it only seemed right that Sammy take the spot of the little brother." Dean laughed bitterly.

"But if they didn't need Sam, that means that Dawn.." Younger Dean trailed off, not wanting to finish his train of thought.

"Yeah, they got Dawn, and because she wasn't really human, not originally, they didn't need her permission. With the right hoodoo, they got right in. Took em a while, but got took her in the end." Older Dean spoke without emotion, as if he was talking about the weather.

_Fuck_ Younger Dean thought to himself. _That woulda killed Buffy._

"Buffy!" Younger Dean exclaimed, "What happened to her? Is she alright?"

Older Dean laughed bitterly, "yeah, she's still kickin', as far as I know. As soon as Lucifer took Dawn, first thing he did was hit the Institutes. All of em, globally. Some of the girls survived, Buffy and Faith amongst them, but Slayers are pretty rare these days."

Younger Dean was shocked, "as far as you know? You haven't been with her?"

"Buffy? I haven't seen her in almost 5 years. We get wind of what she's been up to, but we parted ways a long time ago."

"And you didn't try and find her? Her sister is the devil himself and you didn't try to find her!" Younger Dean practically shouted the last part.

"You don't know what you're talking about. The world has ended! We needed to fix what we could, when we could. I didn't have the time to go off and find one girl."

_One girl?_ Dean thought to himself, wondering what happened for his future self to be so offhanded.

"What about Sam?" Younger Dean asked, trying to move on from Buffy, to the problem at hand.

'I'm handling it," Older Dean replied, before turning to leave the room.

"Where you going?"

"I got to run an errand," Older Dean replied, shrugging on his military style jacket

"Whoa. You're just gonna leave me here?"

"Yes. I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse hanging over their head. The last thing they need to see is a version of _The Parent Trap_. So, yeah, you stay locked down."

"Okay. All right. Fine. But you don't have to cuff me, man. Oh, come on. You don't trust yourself?"

"No. Absolutely not." The door slammed behind him.

"Dick." Dean muttered, as he pulls a nail from the floorboard to remove his handcuffs.

* * *

Dean walked out of the cabin, looking around the camp.

"Hey, Dean. You got a second?" A voice asked behind him.

Dean spun around to see Chuck standing behind him, "no, yes. Uh, I—I guess. Hi, Chuck."

"Hi. So, uh, listen, we're pretty good on canned goods for now, but we're down to next to nothing on perishables and—and hygiene supplies. People are not gonna be happy about this. So, what do you think we should do?"

"I—I don't know. Maybe, uh, share? You know, like at a kibbutz."

Chuck paused before speaking again, "Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be out on a mission right now?"

"Absolutely. And I will be," Dean replied with only a slight hesitation.

Chuck looked behind Dean, seeing something that made him frown, "uh-oh."

Dean spun around in time to stop a woman from punching him in the face.

"Whoa! Jeez! Easy, lady!"

Ducking out of the way, Dean hid behind Chuck, protecting himself from any further attacks.

"Risa," Chuck provided.

"Risa?"

"You spent the night in Jane's cabin last night, didn't you?" Risa asked, accusingly.

"Uh, what? I—I don't—did I?" Dean spluttered, looking in Chuck's direction for help, receiving a nod in response.

"I thought we had a 'connection'." Risa replied, using air-quotes.

"Well, I'm sure that we do."

"Yeah?" Risa angrily replied.

"Hi, Risa," Chuck(ed) offered in the tension.

"Screw you." Risa replied before storming off.

"Oh, jeez. I'm getting busted for stuff I haven't even done yet," Dean muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Uh, never mind. Hey, Chuck, is Cas still here?" Dean hoped the Angel could get him out of this mess.

"Yeah. I don't think Cas is going anywhere," Chuck replied, taking Dean into another cabin.

Dean found future Castiel sitting in a human circle on the floor of the cabin. The circle was composed entirely of women, and Castiel.

Castiel was rambling on to the women, before spotting Dean at the door.

"Oh. Excuse me, ladies. I think I need to confer with our fearless leader for a minute. Why not go get washed up for the orgy?"

The women left the room, with Castiel smiling happily, "You're all so beautiful."

Castiel stood up from the ground, stretching his back with a grunt.

"What are you, a hippie?" Young Dean asked.

"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me." Castiel replied jokingly.

"Cas, we got to talk."

Castiel paused, startled, "Whoa. Strange."

"What?"

"You are not you. Not now you, anyway."

"No! Yeah. Yes, exactly, " Dean exclaimed, relieved that he didn't have to explain himself.

"What year are you from?"

"2009."

"Who did this to you? Is it Zachariah?"

"Yes," he grunted in reply.

"Interesting."

"Oh, yeah, it's friggin' fascinating," Dean replied, exasperated, "now. Why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?"

Castiel looked dejected as he replied, "I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings, but I'm sorry, no dice."

"What, are you stoned?"

"Uh, generally, yeah."

"What happened to you?" Dean asked in shock.

"Life," he sorrowfully replied.

Dean sighed but continued on, "man, you gotta tell me what happened to Buffy. Future me is kind of a jerk, and didn't tell me shit."

Castiel laughed, "'Future me'. Yes, well, I don't think you've had much contact with Buffy since the night you summoned me for information regarding her sister. We've had plenty of contact with her organisation, but not Buffy herself."

"Organisation?"

"Yes, once the world started to crumble, the government decided to extend the military. Buffy runs a special supernatural sector."

"Of course she does," Dean muttered to himself, "so much for her retiring."

"That pretty much went out the window when they took her sister," Castiel replied seriously.

* * *

After their conversation, Castiel and Dean left Castiel's cabin, just as Future Dean and a group of soldiers arrive back into camp.

Future Dean jumped out of the jeep and tossed one of the beers in his hands to the other soldier, sharing a joke. The soldier opened his beer, as Future Dean pulled out a gun and aimed it at his head.

Younger Dean acted instinctively, running towards the soldiers, screaming "watch out!" as Future Dean put a bullet in his head.

The rest of the soldiers stopped what they were doing to look between the two Dean's, one in a blue shirt, and one in a military jacket.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. Me and him—It's a pretty messed-up situation we got going. But believe me, when you need to know something, you will know it. Until then, we all have work to do," Future Dean explained, before grabbing Past Dean and leading him into a nearby cabin.

"What the hell was that?" Yelled Future Dean.

"What the hell was that? You just shot a guy in cold blood!" Dean accused

"We were in an open quarantine zone. Got ambushed by some Croats on the way out."

Dean's confused expression made Future Dean sigh before explaining, "Croats. Croatoans. One of them infected Yeager."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause after a few years of this, I know. I started seeing symptoms about (a) half an hour ago. Wasn't gonna be long before he flipped. I didn't see the point in troubling a good man with bad news."

"'Troubling a good man'? You just blew him away in front of your own people. Don't you think that freaked them out a little bit?" Past Dean asked, shocked at the brutality of his future self's methods.

"It's 2014. Plugging some Croat, it's called commonplace. Trading words with my friggin' clone—that might have freaked them out a little."

"All right, look—"

"No, you look. This isn't your time. It's mine. You don't make the decisions. I do. So, when I say stay in, you stay in."

"All right, man. I'm sorry. Look, I—I'm not trying to mess you—me—us up here."

"I know," Future Dean replied, half heartedly. He went to a table and poured two drinks.

"It's just been a really wacky weekend."

"Tell me about it." Future Dean agreed, handing Past Dean his drink.

Past Dean drank deeply before asking, "what was the mission, anyway?"

Instead of replying, Future Dean pulled out a gun. The Colt.

"The Colt?"

"The Colt."

"Where was it?"

"Everywhere. They've been moving it around. Took me five years, but...I finally got it. And tomorrow night, I'm gonna kill the devil," Future Dean replied, with a bitter smile.

"The devil? You mean Dawn?" Dean asked, shocked.

Before Future Dean had a chance to reply, Chuck burst through the door, out of breath.

"Dean, ah Deans, there's a problem. They're here, they heard about the mission, NSD are here," he finished panicked.

"Shit," Future Dean swore, going to the door. "You gotta stay here, for real this time."

"What? Who are NSD?"

"Military. Stay here. They won't like seeing you, trust me."

"Okay, I'll stay,"

Future Dean walked out, with Chuck behind him. Before Chuck left the room, he nodded towards the window with a wink.

Past Dean chuckled as he snuck over to the window to get a glimpse at the action.

Out front of Future Dean's cabin were three military style vehicles with 'National Supernatural Division' painted on the side.

"Glad you could stop by, sorry we can't offer you any tea, we're fresh out," Future Dean said sarcastically.

"It's good to see some things don't change," a familiar voice replied from behind the nearest vehicle. "The world is ending but Dean Winchester is still a sarcastic asshole," Buffy finished, coming to stand in front of Future Dean

She stood defiantly with her hands on her hips, garbed in her military gear. Her hair was shorter, and her face was filled with little scars, but she was still beautiful.

Not far behind her was Spike, her vampire ex-lover. The sight of him made both Dean's clench their jaw in anger.

"What do you want?" Dean asked angrily.

"Yes, exactly the same, aren't you?" Buffy asked bitterly, "Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" Indicating the cabin behind Future Dean.

"No!" Future Dean practically yelled.

"Oohkay," Buffy started uneasily, before being interrupted by Spike.

"Buffy, there's two of them," he said quietly.

"What? Two of who?"

"Two of him," nodding towards Dean. "Got one in the cabin, I can smell him. I wager that's why he doesn't want you to go in there."

"You mind not smelling me?" Future Dean demanded angrily.

"Can't really help it mate, could smell you a mile away," Spike said with a smile.

Buffy moved forward towards the cabin, pushing Future Dean out of the way. Upon entering, her eyes immediately fell on Younger Dean.

"Well that explains the reports," she muttered to herself.

Future Dean, Castiel, Chuck and Spike joined them quickly.

"What's going on here?" Buffy demanded.

"Hold up there, Goldilocks, you can't just come into our camp and start demanding things!" Future Dean yelled.

"I think I can," She said while crossing her arms.

"Why? Because the government says so?"

"Exactly, and if you don't start talking, we'll have 20 more units surrounding your area, ready to take your whole operation in.

"Over my dead body," Future Dean replied through gritted teeth.

"I hope so," she replied back, just as angrily.

For a moment, they stood inches from each other, chests rising rapidly from anger.

Chuck cleared his throat, "why-why are you here?"

Buffy took a deep breath and stepped away from Dean, "we've had two reports of strange activity. One report mentioned the appearance of Dean Winchester being spotted in a red zone, and the second mentioned a mission for a certain gun."

Future Dean seemed shocked, "how could you possibly know that?"

Buffy smiled condescendingly, "we're the government, we know everything."

"Now my turn," she continued, "why are there two of you?"

"Angel time travel," Past Dean explained.

"Ah," Buffy replied, without needing any other further explanation. "Whatever, that's not what we're here for," she turned back to Future Dean, "what are you planning to use the colt for?"

Future Dean only paused for a second before replying, "to kill Lucifer."

"To kill my sister?" She asked through gritted teeth.

"She isn't your sister anymore and you know it!"

"So what's your plan here, Deano? Just rush in guns blazin'? Because that has worked for you so well before," Buffy remarked sarcastically and bitterly.

"Oh really, opposed to what you've been doing? What is that again? Oh yeah sweet fuck all."

"Fuck all?" Buffy practically screeched, "who do you think is keeping the demons back while you make your little plans? Do you think there'd? be anything left if we weren't doing something?"

"yeah well it didn't save your sister, did it?" Dean said cuttingly.

Buffy punched him, sending Dean flying across the room.

"Wouldn't mention Little Bit if I was you, mate," Spike said angrily.

"I'm not your fucking mate," Future Dean replied, wiping blood from his mouth, getting up from the ground.

Past Dean watched the exchange with horror and disgust. How could they talk to each other like this?

Buffy walked over and picked Dean off the ground, "I'm not your fucking enemy."

Dean shrugged her hands off, and pushed her away, "you're not an ally either, so hands off the goods."

Buffy sighed and moved away, towards Past Dean. She stopped in front of him and looked into his eyes and muttered, "it's weird. Looking into your eyes and not seeing the hate in them."

Without Buffy realising, Future Dean had walked up behind her to hear everything.

"Yeah well that was before you let Bobby die, before everyone died. Before you let Sam get captured."

Buffy turned in shock, "you can't possibly blame me for that."

"If you had killed your sister when you had the chance, none of this would have happened." He replied through gritted teeth, getting in her face.

"Hey, back off her, " Spike growled from behind Future Dean, swinging him away from Buffy, coming in between them.

Quick as lightening, Dean pulled a gun and aimed it at Spike's head. Spike scoffed, "what you think that's going to do, mate?"

"I bet it'll hurt."

"Not as much as it'll hurt you," Spike replied, shifting into his game face.

"Enough!" Buffy shouted from behind them, with a quick grab, she had hold of Past Dean, leading him to the door. "If you don't give us the Colt in two hours, we put a bullet through Marty McFly here. I know enough about time travel to know that'll fuck you up pretty bad," she said to Future Dean.

Without another word, she left the room with her commandos and Spike following her.


	7. Chapter 7

Hi All!

Hope you enjoy this new chapter. I don't have a beta any more so I am a bit nervous about this upload so please review and tell me what you think! I am still a bit unsure how to end this but so far the best sounding one does not end happily so maybe another sequel? No promises because I might just end it on a incredibly sad note :D.

Anyway, please review and tell me what you think. Reviews keep me writing!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Buffy lead Dean and her squad out of town, gripping Dean tightly the whole time. They came to a large tent, pushing Dean inside.

"Woah there, sweetheart. I'm not the one you got beef with. Well I am, but not _me_ me."

"Right, like you're any better," Buffy replied, handcuffing Dean to a nearby trunk. Dean tried to tug his arm to find the trunk to be weighted to the ground.

Buffy smiled at his attempt while silently taking a seat across from him. She sat there for five long minutes, never taking an eye off him, but not making a sound.

"You're just going to sit there and stare at me?" Dean asked, annoyed.

Buffy leaned forward, placing her arms on her knees while she stared intently at him. "How stupid do you think I am? We both know that the moment my back it turned, you'll wiggle your way out of those cuffs and back to your duplicate."

Dean snorted his laughter, smiling at her, "you know me too well, blondie."

Buffy leant back into her seat, watching Dean silently.

Finally Dean couldn't help himself, "what happened?"

Buffy instantly looked confused, "you're gunna have to expand that question, sport."

"What happened between you and future me? I know I was a jerk the last time I saw you, but this is different."

"When was the last time you saw me? In your time?"

"The motel. The night you met Castiel."

Buffy looked shocked and barked out a bitter laugh, "you call that you being a 'jerk'?" she replied bitingly, "I call that you being the biggest scum bag on earth. But ya know, that's just me."

"So that's all? That's why you hate each other"

Reluctantly Buffy replied, "no, that's not all."

"So what?"

Buffy didn't reply, just continued to watch.

"C'mon Buff, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here."

Buffy was quiet a moment more before sighing and replying, "A couple of months after we spoke at the motel, I found Dawn. But I was too late. They had started the ritual. I had one moment to kill her before Lucifer took over. But I couldn't do it. I was too weak. I couldn't kill my baby sister." Dean saw the look of pain and regret in her face.

"We managed to get out, Faith, Spike and me, but it didn't take Lucifer long to gain hold. He killed everyone. Blew up every institute. Only some made it out. Willow, and some of the girls. Everyone else died. Xander, Giles, Andrew. All dead."

"Oh God, Buff. I'm sorry." Dean croaked out.

Buffy laughed bitterly, looking down at the table, "really? Because after that Lucifer went after you. Or _him_ or whoever. He killed everyone you ever knew, ever cared about. They finished with Bobby. You guys had started up your little camp by then but Bobby didn't get here quick enough."

She looked back up at him, "understand why he hates me now? If I had killed Dawn, none of this would have happened."

"_I_ don't hate you." He said in reply, barely above a whisper.

Buffy scoffed, "yeah, I musta meant a lot, with the send-off you gave me."

"No Buffy, you don't understa-"

Before he could finish, Spike came into the tent, "he's come for a trade, love."

Buffy got up and uncuffed Dean, dragging him outside.

Future Dean was waiting for them, obviously pissed off. "It's not your sister anymore, Buff. It's just him. This is the only way to end all of this."

"You're wrong," she replied stubbornly, "there's another way."

"There's no other God damned way!" He shouted in frustration, "this gun is our only chance!"

"Yeah, and what if it was Sam? Huh? Would you be so gung-ho to pull the trigger if it was your sibling instead of mine?"

"I'd do what I'd have to do," he replied quietly, "this has gone on long enough."

Buffy looked shocked, "I don't even know you anymore." She shook herself out of her stupor. "Give me the gun, Dean."

Dean sighed and held out the gun to Spike who grabbed the gun as Buffy pushed Past Dean towards his doppelganger.

Dean quickly turned and led his team and his past self away.

Buffy watched them retreat quietly, before walking back into her tent. Spike and her officers followed closely behind.

She looked at the maps and paperwork on the desk before addressing them, "contact Willow and tell her we have the gun. We don't know if the spell will work bu-"

"Buf," Spike said quickly, cutting her off, "this ain't the gun. He handed us a bloody copy."

Buffy swore before running outside her tent, "everyone, on the move, NOW!"

* * *

"Move! We've got about 10 minutes until she figures it out." Future Dean ordered, pushing his past self into a nearby car.

"Woah, slow down, what's happening?" Past Dean asked.

"He gave the Slayer a fake," Castiel explained, more aware than he had been the whole time Past Dean had been in the future.

Both Deans got into car, with Castiel riding in the back.

"Do you really think it's a good idea for your past self to accompany us? If anything happens to him, it could have disastrous effects on you," Castiel commented from the back.

"He needs to see this. Zach will look after him."

"See what? Dawn?"

"Yeah, sure." Future Dean replied evasively.

"Why do I need to see her like that? I don't want to see her like that!"

"Too fricken bad!" You need to see how bad it gets," Future Dean responded angrily. He took a moment to calm himself before continuing. "Zach said he was going to bring you back, right? To '09?"

"Yeah"

"Well, when you get back home, you say 'yes'. You hear me? Say 'yes' to Michael."

"That's crazy. If I let him in, then Michael fights the devil. The battle's gonna torch half the planet."

"Look around you, man." Future Dean replied, having his arm at the destruction around them. "Half the planet's better than no planet, which is what we have now. If I could do it over again, I'd say 'yes' in a heartbeat."

"So why don't you?"

"I've tried! I've shouted 'yes' till I was blue in the face! The angels aren't listening! They just—left—gave up! It's too late for me, but for you—"

"Oh, no. There's got to be another way."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I was cocky. Never actually thought I'd lose. But I was wrong. Dean. I was wrong. I'm begging you. Say yes." Future Dean paused, looking at his past self before sighing and finishing, "But you won't. 'Cause I didn't. Because that's just not us, is it?"

There was quiet in the car for a while before Future Dean spoke, "All of this could be different. For us. And for Buffy."

At her name, Past Dean turned his head in Future Dean's direction, "I thought you didn't give a shit about Buffy."

"Tried not to. Thought it would be easier to off Dawn if I didn't give a shit about her. I guess it doesn't work that way."

Past Dean thought about that for a while before mumbling, "guess not."

* * *

The Deans, Castiel, and their soldiers arrived at their destination in the middle of the day. The bright sun seemed to amplify the destruction and desolation of the Hot Zone. Surveying the area, Future Dean points to a nearby building.

"There. Second-floor window. We go in there."

"Dawn's in there?" Past Dean asked.

"No," his future counterpart replied in annoyance, "Lucifer is"

"Are you sure about this?" Risa asks, from behind them.

"They'll never see us coming. Trust me. Now, weapons check. We're on the move in five," Future Dean replies.

Past Dean watched the exchange with interest, "hey, uh, me. Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Future Dean moves away, with Past Dean following along.

Past Dean's voice drops to a dulled whisper, "tell me what's going on."

"What?" Future Dean asks in mock confusion.

"I know you. You're lying to these people and to me."

"Is that so."

"Yeah." Past Dean replies, starting to get annoyed at the evasive answers, "see, I know your lying expressions. I've seen them in the mirror. Now, there's something you're not telling us."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, really? Well, I don't seem to be the only member of your posse with some questions, so, uh, maybe I'll just take my doubts over to them."

"Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait."

"What?"

"Take a look around you, man. This place should be white-hot with Croats. Where are they?"

"They cleared a path for us. Which means that this is—"

"A trap. Exactly."

"Well, then we can't go through the front."

"Oh, we're not. They are. They're the decoys. You and me, we're going in through the back."

"You mean you're gonna feed your friends into a meat grinder? Cas, too? You want to use their deaths as a diversion?"

"That surprises you?" a disgusted familiar voice questions near them.

The Deans whip around to see Buffy and her squad behind her.

"Crap," Future Dean answers.

* * *

"So that's your plan, send your friends in for a fire fight while you go _mano a mano_ with the Devil? How do you think that's going to end, Dean?" Buffy asked exasperated. The remainder of her squad had joined Dean's squad, ready to take on any demons in between them and Lucifer.

Her

"Badly for them, better for all of us," He replied in anger.

Past Dean speaks up for the first time since Buffy's arrival, "Oh, man, something is broken in you. You're making decisions that I would never make. I wouldn't sacrifice my friends."

Ignoring Buffy's scoff in disagreement, Future Dean replies, "You're right. You wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess, actually."

"These people count on you. They trust you."

"They trust me to kill the devil and to save the world and that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

Buffy interrupts any reply Past Dean was about to make, "No. Not like this, you're not. I'm not gonna let you."

"Yeah, I figured," Future Dean replied sadly. Without warning, he raises the butt of his gun and hits her in the temple, knocking her unconscious.

"What the hell!" Past Dean yelled in reply.

Future Dean ignores him as he kneels down to caress Buffy's face. Tracing the scars that weren't there the last time they saw each other. His fingers trailed down until they were cupping the side of her face. Leaning down, he places a chaste kiss on her temple, whispering a soft sorry.

Past Dean looked at the exchange with sadness.

As if being caught, Future Dean springs up and into action. He softly moves Buffy's unconscious body into a group of bushes, concealing her.

"Alright, army brats, you move with my guys into the front, Buffy is coming with us into the back," Future Dean shouts to the group, his authoritative voice putting them into action.

"You can't do this," Past Dean urges, looking down at Buffy.

Future Dean sighs before slugging Past Dean into unconsciousness.

* * *

Dean wakes before Buffy, having taken a lighter hit. He groans and stumbles over to her.

"Buffy, wake up," he says as he shakes her.

Slowly, Buffy comes into consciousness. Her awareness comes to her not long after her consciousness, "asshole!" she yells, rubbing her temple.

Dean scoffs before urging her up, "c'mon."

Hearing gunfire, they run towards it, coming into a manicured backyard. Dean and Buffy stop suddenly, seeing Future Dean on the ground, a white shoe holding him down by the head. Future Dean opens his eyes and looks at Buffy, he mumbles her name as the white shoe shifts audibly snapping Future Dean's neck.

Buffy gasps, hands covering her mouth.

Past Dean's eyes are on the owner of the white shoe.

"Sam?"

The figure in white turns to look at the two intruders, "oh hello, Dean. Buffy."

"You're him, aren't you?" Buffy demands angrily, "I can feel it."

"Yes," Lucifer replies, smiling Sam's smile.

"Where's Dawn?!" Buffy yells, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Dead. Well, her body is dead. Her soul was destroyed the moment I took residence."

"Her body. Where is her body?"

Lucifer sighed sadly, "that was unfortunate. It was meant to be the perfect vessel, but without Dawn's essence to keep it together, the body soon began to deteriorate. Once the key essence inside of her was destroyed, the magic that kept the body intact began to dissipate."

"You killed her for nothing," Buffy replied with gritted teeth.

"Oh not at all," He replied with a smile, "her rotting body was what made Sam say yes."

Buffy made a sound of complete anguish before launching herself at Sam/Lucifer. With a quick wave of his hand, Lucifer had Buffy knocked to the ground. Lucifer made his way towards her before Past Dean's guttural "No!" stopped him.

Lucifer slowly turned to Dean, "Aren't you a surprise."

The sound of thunder caught Dean's attention, as Lucifer appeared behind him, causing Dean to jump.

"You've come a long way to see this, haven't you?"

Dean squares his shoulders, "well, go ahead. Kill me."

"Kill you?" Lucifer looks toward the corpse of Future Dean, "don't you think that would be a little...redundant?" Lucifer sighs before continuing. "I'm sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this—shape. But it had to be your brother. It had to be."

Moving towards Dean, Lucifer considers something, "actually no, I originally wanted Buffy." He looks towards her struggling body, still pinned to the ground, "but I feel like she would have been harder to obtain." He finishes with a chuckle, as if he has some sort of inside joke.

Lucifer reaches for Dean's shoulder, as Dean steps out of reach. "You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean. What do you think I'm going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe deep-fry the planet?" Dean replies angrily.

Lucifer lazily walks to the garden, and examines a rose, but quickly turns back to Dean. "Why? Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handiwork of God."

Dean choses to be quite, rather than humouring the monster taking residence in his brother's body.

"You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?" Lucifer eventually asks.

"Oh, good God, you're not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you? My stomach's almost out of bile."

"You know why God cast me down? Because I loved him. More than anything. And then God created...", Lucifer smirks, "You. The little...hairless apes. And then he asked all of us to bow down before you—to love you, more than him. And I said, "Father, I can't." I said, "These human beings are flawed, murderous." And for that, God had Michael cast me into hell. Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially, when I was right? Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it."

"You're not fooling me, you know that? With this sympathy-for-the-devil crap. I know what you are," Dean replies aggressively.

"What am I?"

"You're the same thing, only bigger. The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly-to-the-ground, supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego."

Lucifer smiles at Dean's speech, "I like you, Dean. I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye. We'll meet again soon."

As Lucifer turns to walk away, Dean yells, "you better kill me now!"

"Pardon?"

"You better kill me now. Or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop."

"I know you won't. I know you won't say yes to Michael, either. And I know you won't kill Sam, or Buffy, or Dawn. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up—here. I win. So, I win."

"You're wrong."

"See you in five years, Dean."

The last thing Dean saw was Lucifer turning his attention towards Buffy, as Zachariah raises two fingers to Dean's temple.

* * *

Dean leans against the kitchen sink, staring at Zachariah. "Oh, well, if it isn't the ghost of Christmas screw you."

"Enough. Dean, enough. You saw it, right? You saw what happens. You're the only person who can prove the devil wrong. Just say yes."

Dean leans forward, "how do I know that this whole thing isn't one of your tricks? Huh? Some angel hocus-pocus?"

"The time for tricks is over. Give yourself to Michael. Say yes and we can strike. Before Lucifer gets to Sam. Before billions die."

Dean considers this for a long moment, turning away from Zachariah, "nah."

Zachariah stares at him incredulously. "'Nah'? You telling me you haven't learned your lesson?"

"Oh, I've learned a lesson, all right. Just not the one you wanted to teach."

"Well, I'll just have to teach it again! Because I got you now, boy, and I'm never letting you—"

Dean disappears.

"Son of a..."

* * *

Dean turns to find himself on an empty road, facing Castiel and a disorientated Sam, "that's pretty nice timing, Cas."

"We had an appointment."

Dean puts a hand on Castiel's shoulder, "don't ever change."

"What's going on?" Sam asks confused. Dean chuckles as he replies, "I'll tell you soon."

"How did Zachariah find you?" Castiel asks briskly.

"Long story. Let's just stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses from now on, okay?" Dean replies, as he takes out his phone

"What are you doing?" Castiel asks.

"Something I should have done in the first place."

* * *

**so the fanfic website tends to remove my sections, so I hope i fixed them correctly. my apologies if i do not, but hopefully it still makes sense. again, please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Buffy looked at her ringing phone for the 20th time that day.

"B, ya can't keep ignoring him," Faith said from the driver's seat. Usually Faith would have been the first one to tell B to kick him to the curb, but now wasn't a time to alienate potential allies.

"I think he said all he needed to say," Buffy said stubbornly.

Faith shook her head and pulled into a gas station, "I need to hit the ladies." Buffy nodded in acknowledgement, still staring at her phone.

Out of eyesight, Faith pulled out her phone and wrote a text message, '**heading to HQ.'**

* * *

_Faith, you leather wearing angel_.

"Alright, we're heading to Cleveland," Dean said with a smile, putting his phone away.

"Buffy pick up?" Sam asked surprised.

Dean chuckled, "No, but I don't expect her to. Faith gave us a heads up."

"So you're going to go to a school for Slayers, after breaking the heart of the toughest, strongest Slayer there is? I don't see that ending well," Sam said with a smirk.

"Yeah, well she wouldn't be my girl if she lets me off easy," Dean laughed, getting back into the Impala.

Sam stayed quiet for a while before finally asking, "Dean, what happened? One moment you never want to see Buffy again, and the next she's back to being 'your girl'".

Dean thought for a moment before replying, "I saw the future. Zachariah showed me what happens to the world if we don't say 'yes'. It ain't pretty."

"What's that got to do with Buffy?"

"Zach took me back to convince me to say yes. It didn't work. But it did show me that we need to stick together. All of us. You, me, Buffy, Faith, the whole shebang," Dean paused, thinking, "we're stronger together."

* * *

The Winchesters arrived at 'Athena School for Girls' half a day after the Slayers. They walked through the huge wooden doors to find an empty reception desk. They walked through the school to find it close to empty.

"Where is everyone?" Dean asked, quietly.

"Doing their jobs," a voice replied behind them. The boys whipped around to find Faith standing behind them, leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed. "See with you two bringing Lucifer and angels into the mix, our girls are working double time."

Sam looked down, ashamed.

Faith uncrossed her arms, walking over to the boy and slapping Sam on the back, causing him to wince, "don't worry about it, stretch. Who hasn't brought on an Apocalypse or two? I figured we're owed one after how many we stop."

Dean chuckled, "atleast we got you on our side."

"Yeah, and you might need it. B ain't gunna be happy to see you."

"I figured. Where is she?"

"War Room. C'mon."

The three warriors walked the rest of the way together, with the boys flanking Faith. She pushed open the dark wood doors to reveal the Scoobies in full research mode.

Andrew was at the computers with Kennedy, trying to find any signs of demons or Dawn. Any sign of electric storms or cattle mutilation. Anything.

Willow and Giles were at the War table, pouring over old books. Finding anything that could help track Dawn, or Lucifer.

Xander was pacing the room, on the phone. He had been calling every contact he knew, every Slayer on the road. Putting out the word and gaining any information he could.

And sitting on a chair, leaning her elbows on the giant table was Buffy. Her face was buried within her hands. Her hair hung down the sides of her face, concealing any emotion that would be shown on her face. Sitting beside her was Spike, leaning forward and talking quietly to her. His arm wrapped around her waist, trying to comfort her.

Dean could practically feel his blood boil in rage. Before realising he had taken a step forward, Faith had put her arm in front of him and stopped any movement, "nows not the time, Deano."

Spike's attention went to the new arrivals before anyone else. He unwrapped himself from Buffy and softly shook her, "pet, I believe you have a gentleman caller."

Buffy looked up from her hands, looking at Spike in confusion, before turning towards the door. Quick as lightening, she was out of her seat, standing with her fists clenched to her side. Before she had a chance to cross over to the door, Spike had hold of her elbow, pulling her back. "Easy, love. He might not be the knight in shining armour anymore, but think of Niblet. Let's not burn our bridges."

Buffy nodded in consideration, before walking calmly over to the newcomers. Once she was close enough, she stood there, waiting for an explanation.

Dean relaxed, feeling relieved that Buffy wasn't looking for a fight, "Buff-"

Buffy's fist connected with Dean's face, sending him to the ground.

"Alright, I deserved that," he grumbled, getting up off the ground.

"Ya think?" Buffy gritted out, "What do you want?" She spat out each word with impatience.

Sam stepped up to explain, "Dean was abducted, I guess, by an angel. He showed Dean the future."

Within seconds the Scoobies were rapidly shooting questions.

"Adbucted? I thought the angels were the good guys?" Zander asked.

"Dean, you've seen the future? That could cause things to become quite complicated." Giles stated.

"Shown the future, how? With a dream? A vision?" Willow eagerly asked.

Louder and more intently than any other question Buffy asks, "Did we find Dawn? Is she okay? Where is she?"

Dean's pained expression gave Buffy all the answer she needed.

For the next ten minutes Dean spent his time explaining what he saw, and how it happened.

"Great, so Dawn becomes Lucifers meat puppet and that's it? Why are you here, Dean?" Buffy spits, "this information is good and everything, but you could have put it in a letter, or got Sammy to give us a call. You made it clear you wanted nothing to do with m- with us, so I ask again, _why are you here_?"

Dean grabbed Buffy by the elbow and dragged her away from the group so he could talk to her privately.

"I'm sorry Buff, I was wrong. Everything I said. I thought being with you would make the job harder."

"_The job?_ This _job_ is my sister, Dean."

"You're right, I was an idiot. Am an idiot," Dean grabbed Buffy's shoulders and looked her deep in the eyes, "Please Buffy, were stronger together. What Zach showed me proved that. Apart we have no hope of saving Dawn, but together, all of us, we can do this."

Buffy stared into Dean's eyes, considering. Dean felt hope blossom in his chest. "Buffy, please, I was wrong about everything. About us. Being together makes sense. Together we can save Dawn."

Abruptly, Buffy shook off his hands, "Fine. We work together," she replied with anger in her eyes, "but you broke my heart. Once this is over, were over. For good."

Before Dean had a chance to respond Buffy walked away from him, taking a seat next to Spike.

* * *

Not long after Dean and Buffy's confrontation everyone had gathered around the large table in the middle of the room.

Buffy had done her best to avoid any looks Dean had thrown her way. She couldn't bear to look at him.

She had mourned Dean for months, years, even. She had ached every day after he died, even when she tried her hardest to move on. She couldn't understand why he had done this to her. When Spike kept his resurrection a secret, Buffy understood. She had spent years treating him like crap. But with Dean? She loved Dean, and thought he knew that and loved her too.

_Focus, Buffy_.

Buffy was pacing along one side, "Okay, so we know that Lucifer will eventually be in Detroit. We don't know if he's there now, and we don't know where the Colt is, or even if it will actually kill him."

"So basically, we don't know squat." Faith replied, putting her feet on the table.

"We do know that Lucifer is weak. He needs a vessel. And he needs that vessel to say yes," Buffy said, almost to herself. "If we find Dawn before they complete their ritual, we can halt his plans."

"Yes, well, finding Dawn seems easier said than done," Giles added.

"We should go to Detroit," Buffy said, stopping her pacing.

"Buffy, don't be reckless," Giles sighed, "even if Dawn was there, Lucifer could be as well. Even without his true vessel, his power would be beyond anything we have faced before."

"Giles is right," Willow agreed, "Before we make any moves, we need to be sure we know where Dawn is. If we try and fail, they'll make sure we'll never find her again."

Xander nodded before speaking, "right, but we also need to find a way to pin point Lucifer's location. We don't want him popping up at the wrong time."

"Okay," Buffy said in thought, processing all the information. "We need information. So we need a lackey. If we get hold of one of Lucifers minions, we can get the sitch on his lo-cal."

"Right," Giles agreed, "Xander, can you make a few calls and get some of the girls on it?"

"Can the Flash move at the speed of light?" Xander quipped, getting confused looks from everyone except Andrew, who nodded knowingly. Xander sighed before moving away.

Buffy was still pacing and thinking, "Willow, Dawn is the key. Mystical energy. There has to be a way to track that with magic, some residue of power, or something?" she asked, reaching out in hope.

Willow considered, "I haven't heard of anything, but there has to be something. If Glory was able to track Dawn to Sunnydale, there has to be something," Willow finished the end of her sentence in a mumble as her and Kennedy went to look into some ancient books that she pulled from the back wall.

Buffy stopped her pacing and faced the Winchesters. "The Colt. Maybe the demons can tell us something, but if not, you may want to ask your feathery friend to start searching."

"Yeah, no worries, Buff," Sam replied quickly.

"Right," Buffy said, "I want everyone else searching for any hints of Lucifer or Dawn surfacing. We'll meet back here early tomorrow morning. Come find me if you find something." With that she walked out of the room, closing the door with the slam.

* * *

Dean had left the War Room an hour after Buffy, deciding to take some tension out in the gym.

Seeing Buffy pulled on something inside him that he had never felt before. A mix of joy, terror and adoration filled inside of him at the sight of her. He wanted to keep her close to him, and never let her go, but at the same time, the urge to push her away to keep her safe overwhelmed him.

He knew he did the right thing staying away from her. She was out of the game, and safe. If Dawn had never been taken, Buffy would have stayed out. When he saw her in that motel room, he wanted nothing more to wrap his arms around her and never let go. But he knew that was the most selfish thing he could do. They'd find Dawn, and she would go back to whatever life she had made without him. He thought that was for the best.

But then Zach changed everything.

He had never been so wrong in his life. Staying away from Buffy wasn't going to keep her safe. They needed to be together to bring down the bad guys. He knew that now.

Dean scoffed to himself, _bit late_.

Buffy had made herself clear, they were done. Dean punched the boxing bag with vigour when remembering the scene he walked into when first arriving. Spike's arm around Buffy.

He had left Buffy alone for two years, was that bleached freak the one that kept her warm at night? Dean scowled to himself and kept punishing the boxing bag in front of him. That wasn't the normal life he envisioned for her. He wanted her to settle down with the white picket fence and 2.5 kids, not shack up with _Spike_.

Dean started attacking the bad with added vigour, just as Sam walked in, "woah dude, what did the bag do to you?"

Dean chuckled, "wrong time, wrong place, I suppose."

"Yeah," Sam chuckled in return, "Wanna come grab some food?"

"As long as it's in liquid form."

Sam laughed as he followed his brother out of the gym.

They left the school and drove to the nearest bar. They sat in a quiet corner and order a round of drinks and some dinner.

"Ya know, I always forget how long Buffy has been doing this stuff," Sam started, "she takes control and leads like a general."

Dean smiled, "yeah, she does. Hell, she practically is a general."

"She reminds me of dad."

Dean choked on the beer he was drinking, spluttering the liquid all over the table, "dude, do not compare a chick I've dated with dad, it's creepy.

Sam laughed, "Well it's true! Think about it, she takes control, she knows her stuff. She's a total hardass," he muttered that last one while taking a drink.

Dean looked bug eyed as he really thought about it, "oh god, I'm dating dad."

Sam started laughing uncontrollably, "talk about daddy issues."

"Shut up!" Dean yelled, making Sam laugh harder.

He wiped some laughter tears from his eyes and became sombre. "Dean, what are we going to do?"

Dean paused, surprised at Sam change of mood, "what we always do, Sammy. We're going to fight the bad guys, and rescue the pretty girl."

Sam scoffed, "yeah we'll just take the mystical key from underneath the nose of the Devil," he replied sarcastically.

Dean leaned in, becoming intense, "listen, we can do this. Buffy will move earths to get Dawn back, and we will find a way to stop Lucifer. We've always found a way, and we will again." He leaned back and taking a drink of his beer.

Sam mulled this over before changing the subject, "what about Buffy?" He asked with a grin, "she didn't exactly welcome you back with open arms."

"More like 'welcome back with a mean right hook," he replied rubbing his jaw, making Sam laugh again.

Sam still smiling replied, with a crinkle in his brow, "I haven't felt like this in a long time. Happy. Carefree. With everything that's going on, it's weird, ya know?"

Dean nodded, "Yeah," he agreed, "Having the _scoobies,_" he added with a mocking tilt and air quotes, making Sam laugh, "with us, it makes it better. Knowing we got back up."

Sam agreed. "So what are you going to do about Buffy."

"I don't know, man." Dean sighed, "like many women before her, she wants nothing to do with me," he said bitterly, taking a drink of his beer, "except this time, I actually give a crap."

Sam nodded to the waitress who dropped off their food before replying, "you gotta talk to her."

"And say what? 'Oh yeah, I was pretending to be dead, when I've actually been alive for almost two years, and yeah sorry about saying you make me weak.' I don't really feel like being hit in the jaw again."

Sam chuckled, "maybe try and explain why you did those things? She loves you, dude. She just needs an explanation and some time."

Dean nodded in consideration, eating his food.

* * *

Spike found Buffy in her room later that night. She was sitting on the side of her bed, staring out the window.

"I don't have to go get Red do I, ducks?" He said, sitting next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

Buffy chuckled, resting her head on his shoulder, "no, no spirit walks necessary. Just thinkin'."

"Don't want ya to strain anything there, love."

Buffy chuckled again and pushed him away, "har har, very funny."

Spike smiled before pulling her back to him, "you alright?"

"Hmm, let me answer that question with another question, what's it about me that makes the men in my life pretend that they're dead?" She asked, bitingly.

Spike ducked his head, "can't see I didn't see that coming."

"Is it my quips? Am I too snarky? Really, what is it?"

Spike was quiet before answering, "I can't talk for Fabio, but I wanted to be better. For you. I wanted to prove that I was something before coming back to you."

Buffy was quiet as she considered, "I don't need people making decisions for me."

"I know, ducks."

They sat quietly with each other, lost in their thoughts.

"This, him being back, it changes things between us, doesn't it?" Spike asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

Buffy looked up to him, her eyes full of apologies and sorrow, "yeah, I think it does."

Spike nodded in understanding, "I meant what I said, pet. 'M not sorry for our time together. I'm still here. Not matter what."

Buffy smiled, leaning over to hug him. They stayed in their embrace for a long moment before Spike pulled away, "alright, pet, I best be off. Key to find, world to save."

Buffy got up to walk him to her bedroom door. As they reached it, the door opened revealing Dean.

* * *

Dean slowly made his way to Buffy's door, trying to come up with an explanation that she would understand. Before long, he was standing in front of it, with no clue what to say.

Figuring Buffy wouldn't let him in if she knew it was him knocking; Dean opened the door and stepped into the room.

He stopped in his tracks, seeing Buffy and Spike standing close together in the middle of the room.

Spike quickly broke the tension, "haven't heard of knocking, mate?"

Before he knew it, Dean was across the room, hitting Spike squarely in the jaw. In the next second, he was flying across the room.

Getting up, Dean saw Buffy standing between him and the vampire. "What are you doing?" She asked in anger.

"What am I doing? What are you doing!? Why is that freak in your room?" Dean shouted back.

"You don't get to ask me that question," Buffy replied defensively, "Why are you here?"

Dean calmed down, remembering what brought him to Buffy's room in the first place. "I wanted to talk to you, apologize."

Buffy scoffed, "and this is how you do it? Punching my friends?"

Deans anger rose again as he caught sight of the vampire standing behind Buffy, looking at him in amusement.

"Is this what you were doing when I was dead? Shacking up with _him_?" Dean shouted, pointing at Spike for emphasis.

Buffy stood shocked, before sitting on the bed with her head in her hands. "My sister has been kidnapped by the forces of evil, and my ex-boyfriend, who pushed me away 'for my own good', is yelling at me for talking to another ex-boyfriend, who also avoided me 'for my own good'." She looked up at the two men in her room, "I really wish this was a rare occurrence."

Spike chuckled before walking to the door, "I think I'll leave you two kids to it." He walked out and shut the door behind him.

Dean stood their awkwardly, not sure how to start. "What do you want, Dean?" Buffy asked, tiredly.

He hesitated before taking a seat beside her. "I came and saw you. After I was brought back. It was one of the first things I did. I came to the building you work in, and I saw you there, standing in the sun light. You were smiling, and laughing. You looked beautiful. And safe," He paused to look at her, to find that she was already staring at her, "I knew I couldn't drag you into the darkness with me."

"I would have done _anything_ to be with you," Buffy replied, brokenly. "Light, or dark, New York, or the Impala. I wouldn't have cared."

Dean turned to face her properly, and took her hands with his own. "I know, and I'm an idiot. I know that now."

Buffy stared into his eyes, before snapping out of it and getting off the bed and away from him, "what do you want me to say, Dean?" She yelled, pacing around the room, "you pretended to be dead to keep me away, and when I found out you're alive, you couldn't leave quick enough! And now you want to get back together? Mixed signals much?"

Dean wanted to laugh, but restrained himself. He was surprised how much his missed her angry rambles and 90s catch phrases.

"I thought I was doing what was best."

"Yeah, and what's stopping you from doing it again?" She stopped in front of him with her hands on her hips.

Dean got off the bed to stand closer to her. "Honestly? Nothing. I am always going to do what I can to protect you. The only difference now is that protecting you means staying right beside you, no matter what. I was an idiot to think that we'd be better off apart," he stepped a bit closer, causing a still closed off Buffy to step back, "when I went to Hell, I did things, and saw things. They changed me, Buffy. I'm not the man I was."

The thought of Hell, caused Dean to grimace, his mind going back to the months he spent torturing souls under the guidance of Alastair.

The pain of the memories of Hell showed clearly on Dean's face, and Buffy stepped forward to take his hands. Dean looked down at her, "I'm not the man I was, Buffy, and I didn't want to taint you with who I had become, but when I'm around you, I feel like I could be, I don't know, better."

Dean was obviously uncomfortable speaking so candidly about his experience in Hell, and it showed. Buffy stayed silent, unsure whether she could open herself up to a relationship that had left her so broken hearted.

Dean stepped closer, cupping her face in his hands, "Please, Buffy, give me another chance. Give me another chance to fix this."

Buffy was hesitant, but with her eyes shining with unshed tears, she nodded and softly replied, "okay."

Dean leaned down to kiss her, but was stopped by the sound of the door banging open.

Standing at the door was Willow. Her eyes were wild, and clothes dishevelled, but she was smiling.

"I think I've found a way to track Dawn."

* * *

**Hello!**

**Just a couple of things, some people will probably think Buffy would have ran back to Dean as soon as he said sorry but the Buffy I was raised watching is a strong woman who wouldn't let a man treat her like that and just forgive him. In the end, she was always going to go back to him because she loves him, but that doesn't mean she would change who she was as a person.**

**Also, I realise I use the 'interrupting door' trope and cliff hanging chapters a lot. I'd say im sorry, but Im not. It works and I like it.**

**Anyway, enjoy and please review! everytime I get a review it makes me to want to write so much more. Thanks :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Everyone had gathered back in the War Room to hear Willow's plan. They were all sitting around the table, with Willow standing at the head of it.

Visibly nervous, Willow started speaking, "right, so, remember how Glory knew Dawn was in Sunnydale, but couldn't pin point her?" when the Scoobies nodded, she continued, "well I couldn't find a spell for locating Dawn's essence, but I could find a spell to absorb the essence of something else."

Her statement was met with confused stares, so she continued, "I think if I use this essence spell to partially absorb the essence of Glory, I could find a way to at least find the town that Dawn is in. It wouldn't pin point her, but Buffy's demony tinglies should do the rest."

"Absorbing the essence of a demon god? I'm not always known for the thinkin' but even I know that seems too dangerous," Xander replied, in worry.

"Yes, quite right. Willow I understand your powers far surpass most, but even this would be too much. Absorbing Glory could cause her to take you over, as she did with Ben."

"It wouldn't though! I would only be partially absorbing, and since she's, ya know, dead, I wouldn't even be absorbing _her_ just what make her her, if that makes sense," she finished, confusing even herself.

"So basically you'll just be absorbing her talents? Her powers? The ability to find Dawn?" Buffy asked.

"Right! I wouldn't be Glory, but her essence. I'd lock it in a part of my mind until we find Dawn and I can let the spell go!"

"How would you even do that?" Sam asked, thinking logically, "I mean, isn't she dead? How would you even absorb the essence of something that doesn't exist?"

Willow looked at Buffy uncomfortably before explaining, "Glory was, is, a God. She can't just be erased from the world. Her powers extend beyond that. When she was killed, it was like she was absorbed back into the seams of the universe. For all intents and purposes, she's dead. But her essence still exists."

Buffy flinched at the thought of the Hell God still being a part of their world, but pushed through it and nodded at Willow in acknowledgement.

The gang considered the idea, with Giles adding, "I would like to look at this spell myself, but if what you're saying is correct, it could be our only option."

Buffy nodded, "right, so let's do it. Willow, how long until you can be bursting with hell demony goodness?"

The terminology made Willow flinch, and Kennedy scowl, "um, about a week? I need to do some more research, gather some materials and get the right timing. It's a bit complicated."

Sam spoke up, "We got a text from a friend of ours. He's in Vermilion, about an hour away, and needs our help. While you're working on that, Dean and I are going to help Chuck."

Buffy turned to Dean incredulously, "we're fighting the Devil, and you're just going to run off on an errand?"

"It's not just an errand," Dean bit back, angrily, "our boy, Chuck, is a Prophet. We're hoping he's got some news for us"

"A Prophet?" Giles asked excitedly, leaning in.

Sam smiled, "Yeah, he'd been writing a series about our lives. He thought it was all fake until we showed up on his door step. Guy didn't even know he was a Prophet."

"Extraordinary."

"Fine," Buffy replied, stubbornly, "but Faith and I are coming. If this guy knows anything about Dawn, I want to find out first hand."

Dean smiled, "whatever you like, sweetheart."

* * *

The Impala pulled into the hotel, parked near a sign stating "Welcome to Pineview Hotel". The girls got out first, staring at the other cars in the parking lot. They were all Impalas, duplicates of the Winchester's car.

"Spooky," Faith commented, getting a nod from Buffy.

"This definitely isn't normal."

The guys joined them, equally confused, "cmon," Sam encouraged them towards the hotel, and away from the cars. They found Chuck pacing at the front of the stairs. "Chuck! There you are!" Sam said, walking up to the prophet and shaking his hand.

Chuck was visibly surprised when he replied, "Guys? And girls?" he added with further confusion when spotting the Slayers.

"Whats going on?" Dean asked, also shaking Chuck's hand.

"Ah, nothing. You know, I'm just kinda hanging. What are you guys doing here?"

Dean seemed impatient when he replied, "you told us to come."

Chuck was even more confused, and a little bit worried, "ah, no I didn't."

"Yeah you did, you texted me. This address, life or death situation. Any of this ringing a bell?" Sam replied, also impatient.

"I didn't send you a text."

Dean had finally lost his patience, "we were kinda in the middle of something, Chuck!"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what could...oh no," he replied with a sudden realisation.

"What?" Dean asked, nervously.

A thrill squeal answered them from the top of the steps, "SAM! You made it!" everyone turned to find a pretty girl with dark blonde hair approaching them.

"Oh, ah, Becky, right?" Sam replied uneasily.

She ran down to them, "oh, you remembered!" she lowered her voice seductively to finish, "you've been thinking about me."

Her statement and Sam's obvious discomfort made the girls smirk and chuckle, causing Becky to look at them in scorn, "who are they?"

Dean smirked before responding, "This is Buffy and Faith," indicating each girl, "girls, this is Chuck and Becky." The girls smiled and waved in response.

Chuck was startled, "the Slayers?"

Faith replied, "yeah, two of many." She turned to Buffy, "ya know this whole potential activation thing makes me feel less special."

"Right? I mean I used to say I was the Slayer and everyone would 'ohh' and 'ahh', and now it's like 'oh, another one?"

"We've become common," Faith said with distaste.

"I doubt anyone could ever call you two common," Sam replied kindly, receiving smiles from the Slayers, and a scowl from Becky.

"Ah no, I know about you two specifically," Chuck added, "my dreams, they started with you, Buffy." He looked at her in awe, "I wasn't in a place to start writing about it, but I remember. You're a hero, both of you." He added, indicating towards Faith, "you've stopped more apocalypses then these boys have ever seen," He finished, looking like he was about sick, the pressure of being involved with such people overwhelming him. "Plus, you were main characters in my series before Dean went to Hell."

"Naw shucks, Chucks, you'll make us blush," Faith said with a smile, making Chuck himself blush.

Dean had gotten annoyed with Chuck practically worshiping the girls and decided to push the conversation forward, "alright, Chuck, if you didn't message us, who did?"

Chuck shook himself out of his hero worship and turned to Becky, "Becky, did you take my phone?"

"I just borrowed them from your pants."

"Becky," Chuck started with Faith whispering to Buffy in the background "ohh his _pants,_" causing them to giggle.

"What?" Becky asked, "they're going to want to see it!"

"See what?" the Winchester's replied simultaneously.

"Oh my god! I love it when they talk at the same time," Becky shrieked, causing an eye roll from Buffy and Faith.

A man appeared at the stop of the stairs with a clipboard, "Hey Chuck? Come on pal, it's showtime."

Becky ran up the stairs, heading inside. Chuck turned to the boys apprehensively, "guys. I'm sorry. For everything."

* * *

The four of them were standing in the foyer, taking in their surroundings. A larger man in a leather jacket walked passed them with a beer in hand, he chuckled "hey Dean, looking good."

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked, out of his element.

The man turned back, showing everyone else that he was dressed almost identically to Dean, right down to the necklace, "I'm Dean too. Duh." He explained before walking away.

The Winchesters were confused, while Buffy had cottoned onto what was happening. She was whispering excitedly to Faith, practically dancing with joy. Her whispered explanation caused Faith to start laughing her arse off, Buffy quickly joining her.

As the guys looked around, they noticed men in costumes that looked eerily familiar.

"Becky, what is this?" Sam asked.

"It's awesome! A supernatural convention, the first ever!" Becky exclaimed, causing Buffy and Faith's decreasing laughter to start back up again, even louder than before.

* * *

Faith, Buffy, Dean and Sam were posted at the back of the room, listening to the convention.

"Can you two please stop enjoying this so much?" Dean demanded of the girls, who hadn't stopped smiling.

"C'mon Deano! Lighten up, you guys are celebrities!" Faith laughed in response.

"That's easy for you to say, your life isn't written for just anyone to read," he replied, angrily.

"Excuse you? I was the one starring in prophesies at sixteen, so don't even start," Buffy replied snootily, crossing her arms.

"Hey, did you hear the German hook guy?" Faith asked, "He has a total point. Why don't we bungee our weapons? I'm always losing my stake!"

"Yeah, me too!" Buffy replied, earning both her and Faith exasperated looks from the Winchesters, "sorry," she replied meekly, sharing a secret smile with Faith.

They quieted down as Chuck looked nervously in their direction, obviously answering a question he knew the boys wouldn't like, "Oh. Well there lies an announcement, actually. You're all going to find out." He replied to a fan, who asked about Dean's trip to Hell, "Thanks to a wealthy Scandinavian investor, we're going to start publishing again."

His announcement caused the room to erupt, with Faith and Buffy even contributing to the cheering.

* * *

The hunters found Chuck in the bar later, and pulled him away from Becky.

"In case you haven't noticed, our plates are kind of full, ok? Finding the Colt, hunting the devil. We don't have time for this crap," Dean said.

In the background, Becky was trying her hardest to get Sam's attention, much to his embarrassment, and the girl's joy.

"Hey, I didn't call you!"

"He means the books, Chuck," Sam explained. "Why are you publishing more books?"

"Um.. for food and shelter?"

Dean leaned towards him menacingly, "who gave you the rights to our life story?"

"An Archangel, and I didn't want it!"

"Well, deal's off, ok. No more books. Our lives are not for," Sam paused to glance at Becky, who was still staring at him with open admiration, "public consumption."

They noticed Becky listening and moved to a more private location.

Buffy started speaking before the guys had a time to start arguing, "okay, let me get the dealio, the boys don't want you blabbing about their lives, but you need to make a living?" they all nodded, "I get it, Slayage didn't always come with a salary, so how about this, Chuck would you like to come work with us?"

Everyone seemed stunned with the offer, most of all, Chuck, "work with you? With the Slayers? Bu-but I can't fight."

Buffy smiled, "no, but you're vision boy, which, believe me, comes in handy. Plus ever since the boys told us about you, Giles has been dying to meet you. Even Willow and Spike were all with the questions."

Dean scowled at the mention of Spike's name but stayed silent.

Chuck seemed shocked, "Really? You'd give me a job?"

"A job, a place to stay, meals. It's a pretty cruisy gig," Faith replied, knowing it was a good idea.

Buffy handed Chuck a card, "look, give Andrew a call. I'll let him know what's going on, and he'll set you up."

Chucks face portrayed unabashed gratitude and worship, he opened his mouth to say his thanks but was cut off by a women's screams, causing the four heroes to run off in its direction.

"No, guys..wait!"

* * *

It took the hunters all of 2 minutes to figure out the hunt was a part of the convention. The constant quotes from their lives, and resurfacing of their previous hunts via men in costumes caused Sam and Dean to find the closest bar, with the smirking girls in tow.

"This is kinda cool!" Buffy exclaimed looking at all the costumes. Dean scoffed, putting down his beer, "'cool'? half of these guys almost killed me!"

"I can understand where they're coming from," Buffy commented under her breath, causing Sam and Faith to chuckle.

From their seat, they overheard a conversation between two guests regarding a real ghost. The boys looked interested, and moved over to question the guy, leaving the girls behind with their drinks. "They got this," Faith remarked, taking a drink. Buffy nodded and ordered another round.

* * *

Later that night, after ganking the ghost, the Winchesters came into the bar room to find two very drunk slayers.

"Juurr back!" Buffy exclaimed raising her drink in the air in a cheers motion. "How did the ghosty go?" Realising what she said, Buffy started laughing, "ghosty go," she repeated between giggles.

The boys were shocked; the blond slayer usually refrained from alcohol, claiming it didn't suit her well.

"Are you kidding? You didn't hear _anything?_ See any ghosts? There's an ambulance outside!" Dean was shocked that his usual vigilant slayer was so unaware.

"Ah, its fineeee, Deano, we knew you had it," Faith slurred, waving them off.

Sam looked unsure but continued, "right, well, we better get going back to the school. It's getting late."

Sam hurried along to talk to Becky and Chuck, while Dean walked with the girls to the car. Even with their super powers, the girls were completely hammered. He wasn't letting them out of his sight. Sam met them back at the car with an excited look on his face.

"Well, you're not going to believe it, but I got a lead on the Colt."

"What?" Dean asked.

"Long story, I'll tell you on the way?"

* * *

The drive back to the school wasn't long enough for the slayers to sober up, so the boys split up to each guide a girl back to their rooms.

"C'mon, drunky, time for bed."

"Bed? Pfftttsss, bed is for the dead," Buffy replied, quickly resulting in laughter when she realised she accidently rhymed.

Dean cracked a smile, as he led her into her room. She may have been drunk, but at least she was laughing. He sat her on the bed, and said goodnight, turning to leave.

"Dean?" She asked shyly, "you're not going to stay?"

He looked back at her. Even drunk, she was beautiful. She sat on her bed, hands resting on either side of her, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

"Sweetheart, I would love nothing more," he swallowed, pushing himself to do the right thing, "but I just got you back, I'm not willing to lose you tomorrow when you realise that drunken sex isn't the best decision right now."

Buffy rolled her eyes, "it's so typical of you to assume I meant sex," she replied, slurring all her S's. She became shy again, and dropped her eyes, "I've missed you. So much." She looked back up at him through her lashes, "just stay with me? Hold me?"

Dean found himself choked up but rasped out, "yeah, of course." He removed his jacket and boots, before crawling into Buffy's bed, pulling her into his body. She moulded into him, and made a sigh of contentment. They fit together in every sense of the word. He had held many women in his life, but none felt like this.

They laid together for a while before Buffy started speaking, "it was so hard trying to pretend like I didn't miss you," she started so quietly, Dean had to strain to hear her. "I went to New York to get away, to leave anything that reminded me of you. It didn't work, obviously," she scoffed, "I did the whole work thing, the normal girl thing. But slaying, hunting, it's a part of me. Apart of us," she linked her fingers with his as she said it. She continued, "I don't even think it was two years before I was slaying again. I tried to keep it secret, but Spike found me." She hadn't meant to mention Spike, but his name slipped out before she could even stop it. She knew it was an instant mistake when she felt Dean stiffen behind her.

"Spike," he spat out, repeating her.

Buffy rolled so she was facing him, "Yeah, Spike," she said, defensively, "I know you have something to say, so just say it."

She barely finished when he blurted, "were you fucking him?" the harshness of the question startled them both, "no, I don't wanna know," he said, rolling on his back, wiping his hands over his face, "wait, yes I do, I think I need to," he finished rolling back to her.

She looked at him for a moment, considering lying, before continuing, "yeah, I was."

Dean snapped back from her, reeling away and getting out of the bed to pace the room. Buffy watched for a while, before coming to sit on the edge of the bed, "are we going to talk about it?"

Dean whipped back to her, anger in his eyes, "how long was I dead before you started shacking-up with the living dead?"

Buffy was momentarily shocked by his harsh words before her own anger rose, "years!" she shouted in reply, "and apparently alive for most of it!" Her words made him flinch, but he didn't back down from his anger.

"Yeah, you must have really missed me." He spat out sarcastically.

"How can you even say that?" she whispered in shock, "I thought you were _dead, _Dean, I was alone and miserable. Being with Spike may not have been right, but it made me feel _something, anything, _after you left." She was close to him now, fists clenched in anger, "you choose to stay away! You can't be angry at the things I did with my life when you chose not to be in it!"

"Like Hell! The thought of you being with anyone drives me nuts! Let alone a fucking demon!"

"Oh right, and I'm sure you were being soo faithful," she spat out. The look on his face made her know she was right. A sudden of emotions ran through her, jealousy and pain. She was still dealing with the pain of him keeping his resurrection from her. She didn't even think about what he was doing while he was alive. She sat on the edge of the bed again, looking at her feet.

Dean looked at Buffy, and knew he'd been a dick. He pulled his hand through his hair, letting out a breath and trying to calm himself

He thought about all the girls he'd been with since he came back. All the blond girls he'd been with, who couldn't fill the void Buffy left. He knelt in front of Buffy and took her hands, looking into her eyes. "I fucked up," he started, ignoring Buffy's scoffed 'ya think', "I shouldn't be mad about Spike, but I am. I can't help it, you drive me nutty, you really do. But I'm not going anywhere, you understand? You want to hate me? Fine, I'm still going to be here. You want to be with Spike," he spat the word out like it tasted bad, "fine, I'll still be here. I won't like it, but I'll be here. I'm not leaving you again, Buffy," he finished sincerely, hoping she understood, "I couldn't handle it, if I did."

Buffy was silent for a while before responding, "We're not together anymore." Dean was confused so she continued, "Spike and I. As soon as I knew you were alive, I broke it off. It wouldn't be fair to him. Or to you. Or me."

"Oh. Well, good." Dean finished lamely.

Buffy laughed and leant down to kiss him, sweetly and chastely. She pulled him back into the bed, "c'mon, the _job_s not done yet. We need to sleep."

They settled in together, and Dean felt hope swell in his chest.

* * *

**Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

Authors Note:

Hey guys, sorry it's been so long. I'm on uni break now so I finally had time to write. One of my biggest chapters too!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of those still reading this story and all the people who have reviewed. I have gone back and read them and I just have to say how happy they make me!

So here's chapter 10. I will start writing the next chapter in the next couple of days. I'm still deciding how I want this to go. Whether I want to go slightly cannon or give it more of a happy ending.

I guess we'll see!

Anyway, please review and let me know what you think :)

* * *

**Chapter 10**

"That's okay, you did great. We'll take it from here," Dean replied to Castiel before hanging up the phone.

"What's the sitch?" Buffy asked, sitting next to Dean at the war table.

"Castiel found a lead on the Colt, high ranking demon named Crowley."

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Sam asked, across from the newly reunited couple.

"Cas says the place is heavily guarded, demons patrolling and Enochian wards."

"Enochian?" Xander asked.

"Yes, the Enochian Angels, proposed by an English medium in the 16th century, but not widely believed to be true," Giles explained, "but that was before we knew about the true existence of Angels."

"Yeah, well basically it means Cas can't enter, so we need to go check it out," Dean added, "We'll need a distract, pretty girl looking for help?" he asked Sam, receiving a nod in return.

"Well lucky for you, you got a few good looking chicks," Faith replied, lounging back in her chair, "the whole helpless thing might be something we have to work on," she finished with a shared grin with Buffy.

"While I'm sure you'd be great damsels in distress," Sam explained, "you're too well known."

"Yes, Sam's quite right," Giles agreed, "if this Crowley is as powerful as Castiel claims, he would have information concerning the both of you. It would be too obvious to send two of the best known Slayers as a distraction."

Buffy pouted but couldn't argue with their logic, "well who else could we use? Dawn is our usual go to girl for damseling."

Dean looked a little awkward before saying, "we might know someone."

* * *

Jo Harvelle walked towards the mansion's gate dressed in a beautiful evening dress. The night wasn't cold, but she felt shivers of anticipation for what she was about to do. She had been hunting for a while, but wasn't sure she was ready for a house filled with demons. But Dean had asked for a favour.

Jo had met the Winchesters earlier that night, and had been embarrassed to admit to herself that she was looking forward to seeing the older Winchester brother. That was until she saw the two girls by their side. The two girls from Colorado.

She wasn't stupid, she knew who the Slayers were, especially those two. She just didn't realise Dean's full relationship with the blonde Slayer. Jo knew that Dean was involved with Buffy before his death, but with no word about her since he came back, Jo assumed she was out of the picture. Jo was honest enough with herself to admit that she was hurt to see Buffy by his side.

Jo pressed the intercom button at the gate and waited.

The static sounding intercom came to life, "hello?"

"Hello. My car broke down. I need some help," Jo replied, trying to sound as meek as possible.

"I'll be down in a minute."

Jo felt apprehension as she waited. Her feelings for Dean weren't the sole reason she helped them, although if she was truthful with herself she would admit that it didn't hurt. She helped the Winchester's because she was a hunter, and this is what she did. But that doesn't mean she wasn't scared shitless.

The gates opened, and two men walked towards her.

"Evening, pretty lady. Get yourself on in here," one the men called as he came closer.

"I just need to make a call," Jo replied meekly.

"You don't need to call anyone, baby," he replied, glancing back at his partner, "we're the only help you're ever gonna need."

"You know what? I think I should wait by my car," Jo replied, turning away.

The man who had been speaking grabbed her by the shoulder, bringing him back to face his now black eyes, "We said, get your ass in here,"

Jo shook him loose, sending him to the ground with a powerful punch. Behind him, the demon's partner is stabbed through the neck, causing his body to light up with his death. Sam slid the knife out, walking over to the demon on the ground and finishing him off quickly.

"Nice work, Jo," Dean commented, appearing not far from behind Sam, the Slayers trailing along.

"Yeah, sister, nice right hook," Faith commented, slapping Jo on the back.

"Thanks," she replied, wincing.

"Yeah, really, if you're ever looking for some paid work, we could always use another bad ass chick," Buffy added with a smile.

"I'm good," Jo replied curtly, wiping the smile of Buffy's face, leaving shock in its place.

Dean cleared his throat before handing Jo a bag. Jo rustled around in the bag before pulling out a set of wire cutters. "Okay, shall we?"

* * *

Inside the mansion, the two Slayers and Winchester brothers quietly crept through the house until they found Crowley, finding him just as Jo cut the power.

"It's Crowley, right?" Sam asked.

"So. The Hardy Boys finally found me. Took you long enough," he replied, before coming towards the group, "and the Slayers too! What a night."

He slowly approached them before stopping, noticing his crumpled rug. He turned it upside down to find a devil's trap drawn underneath. He looked up in irritation "Do you have any idea how much this rug cost?"

As he replied, six demons appeared, one each for the Winchesters, and two for the Slayers. The demons quickly disarmed them and kept them still. Crowley pulled the Colt from his pocket, aiming it at Dean's head.

"This is it, right? This is what it's all about."

Crowley quickly readjusted his aim, shooting the demon behind Dean, followed quickly by the death of the others.

"We need to talk. Privately." Crowley explained, moving into another room.

"Mixed signals, much," Buffy murmured to Faith, moving cautiously to follow the demon.

Faith nodded in agreement before adding quietly, "he's strong though, right? Can you feel it?

Buffy nodded solemnly before catching up to the boys.

"What the hell is this?" Dean demanded.

"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing?" Crowley replied, slamming the door shut with a wave of his hand. "There's no reason you or anyone should know this even exists, except that I told you."

"You told us," Sam replied, disbelieving.

"Rumors, innuendo, sent out on the grapevine," Crowley explained.

"Why? Why tell us anything?" Sam asked.

Crowley raised the weapon again aiming it at Dean. "I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face."

"Uh-huh, okay, and why exactly would you want the devil dead?' Dean asked nervously, the Colt still staring him in the face.

"It's called," Crowley started, putting the gun down, "Survival. Well, I forgot you two at best are functioning morons-"

"You're functioning...morons..." Dean mumbled lamely, getting a scoff from Buffy.

"Lucifer isn't a demon, remember?" Crowley explained, condescendingly, "He's an angel. An angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, you're just filthy bags of pus. If that's the way he feels about you, what can he think about us?"

"But he created you," Sam commented, confused.

"To him, we're just servants. Cannon fodder. If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we're next. So, help me, huh? Let's all go back to simpler, better times, back to when we could all follow our natures. I'm in sales, dammit! So what do you say if I give you this thing, and you go kill the devil?"

Crowley raised his arm, offering the Colt to Sam. Sharing a look with Dean, Sam looked back at the demon with suspicion, before taking the gun.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the devil is, by chance, would you?" Sam asked.

"Thursday, birdies tell me, there's an appointment in Carthage, Missouri."

Sam glanced at Dean and nodded in his direction, before looking back at Crowley, "Great," Sam said before aiming the gun between Crowley's eyes and pulling the trigger.

The gun clicked, signalling the lack of a bullet, causing Sam to become surprised, and leaving Crowley looking impassive, "Oh, yeah, right, you'll probably need some more ammunition."

He walked behind his desk, reaching into a draw, pulling out a box of bullets.

"Oh, uh, excuse me for asking, but aren't you kind of signing your own death warrant? I mean, what happens to you if we go up against the devil and lose?" Dean asked, suspicious of the whole exchange.

"Number one, he's going to wipe us all out anyway. Two, after you leave here, I go on an extended vacation to all points nowhere. And three, how about you don't miss, okay! Morons!" Crowley shouted, throwing the box at Dean before disappearing.

* * *

The next night found Dean, Sam, Buffy, Faith, Castiel, Jo and Jo's mother Ellen crowded in Bobby's house.

The tables around them are littered with empty bottles and shot glasses.

The Harvelles and Bobby were watching Castiel down shot after shot, watching as the Angel started to feel weakly drunk.

On the other side of the desk, the Slayers and Winchesters were discussing their plans.

"It's gotta be a trap, right?"

"Sam Winchester, having trust issues with a demon. Well, better late than never," Dean replied.

"Thank you again for your continued support."

"You're welcome," Dean replied, bringing his beer up to clink with Sam's, causing both the boys to drink. "You know, trap or no trap, we got a snowball's chance, we gotta take it, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Sam replied, unsure.

"If there's a chance my sisters there, I'm going," Buffy replied, with Faith nodding in agreement.

"I'm not even sure it's a trap," Dean commented, "I mean, Carthage is lit up like a Christmas tree with Revelation omens. And look at this," he said as he pushed some papers towards the others, "There's been six missing persons reported, in town, since Sunday. I think the devil's there."

Sam thought it over before addressing Buffy, "What about Willow? Did she do the spell? She'd know if Dawn is there or not."

Buffy shook her head, "she said the timing wasn't right. She's working on it but until then we got bupkis."

Dean sighs, "it's a frigging stupid idea. We shouldn't even be taking you two in there," he indicated to Buffy and Sam, "taking two vessels into Lucifer's path, its frigging stupid."

"Like you could stop us," Buffy laughed, nudging Sam playfully, causing him to laugh.

Dean rolled his eyes, mumbled "stupid idea" before moving into the kitchen to talk to Jo.

Buffy's eyes followed Dean into the kitchen, watching him talk to the pretty blonde girl. Buffy was far from stupid, she could see the way Jo looked at Dean. The same way Buffy looked at him.

She hated playing the role of the jealous girlfriend, but Dean had basically admitted to sleeping with other people while she had been in New York, and she couldn't help but think Jo was one of them.

* * *

Jo grabbed her beer out of the fridge and turned around to find Dean behind her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied.

Dean smiled and continued, "So. Dangerous mission tomorrow. Guess it's time to eat, drink, and, you know, make merry," he said, referring to the cold shoulder she had been giving him and the Slayers.

Jo knew what he was implying, but had hoped that his reconnection with Buffy was purely to finish the job, "Are you giving me the last-night-on-earth speech?"

"What?" Dean asked, genuinely confused.

Jo moved towards him, knowing this might be her only chance, "Because, if it was, I could be inclined."

Dean backed away and put his hands up, "Woah, Jo, I-I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression, I'm with Buffy," he explained awkwardly.

Jo sighed, and her body deflated, "yeah, I figured," she replied quietly, "thought I'd try and see if it was otherwise, but maybe I should have spent my "last-night-on-earth" with a little self-respect."

"Look, Jo, it's not-"

"Save it, Winchester," she replied before leaving the room, as Bobby called them in for a photo.

"Everybody get in here! It's time for the lineup. Usual suspects in the corner."

"Oh come on, Bobby. Nobody wants their picture taken," Ellen replied.

"Hear, hear," Sam agreed.

"Shut up. You're drinking my beer," Bobby commented surly. "Anyway, I'm gonna need something to remember your sorry asses by"

By this stage, everyone had come into the room. The Slayers stepped back to allow the hunters to have their personal photo. While they had come to mean a lot to the Winchesters and Bobby, they knew that this was a certain family moment they didn't want to interfere with.

"Ha! Always good to have an optimist around," Ellen replied to Bobby with a smile

"Bobby's right. Tomorrow we hunt the devil. This is our last night on earth," Castiel replied, making everyone drop their smiles as the cameras flash went off.

* * *

Everyone had retired to bed, preparing for the day ahead of them. Their departure had left Dean and Buffy alone.

He moved towards her, trying to pull her close, but she evaded him.

He sighed, "c'mon Buff, we're going against the Devil tomorrow, so get all the yelling off your chest so we can get to the making up."

Buffy scoffed, "I'm not going to yell, you goon."

"Then what is it?"

Buffy seemed a little uncomfortable before speaking, "I know you were with other girls while I was in New York," she started, ignoring Dean's murmur of 'with _Spike_', "I want to know if Jo was one of them," she rushed out.

Dean seemed shocked for a moment before shaking his head, "Jo? No way."

"Don't just brush it off like that!" Buffy said back, annoyed, "she clearly likes you."

Dean sighed with resignation, "yeah, I know," he admitted, "I didn't mean for that to happen, ya know. After I came back, we saw them for some hunts, and I may have flirted, harmlessly!" He added, with the look of raised eyebrows, "but it never went further than that," he finished appealingly.

If Buffy hadn't already been annoyed with Dean keeping his resurrection a secret from her, she might have let I go, but her pent up anger just wouldn't let her, "harmlessly flirted? I really doubt that, Dean. I know you enough to know you wouldn't mix business with pleasure just for the fun of it. A random bar chick? Sure, but another hunter? I don't think so. Tell me the truth." She demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

Dean felt himself backed into a corner, "Okay, yeah. When I came back, and I was trying to get over you, I thought maybe Jo and I could be something. But I realised it would just hurt her, and leave me feeling empty." He ran his hands through his hair as he paced the room, "I couldn't just _replace_ you, replace what we had. And I couldn't drag Jo into this mess either. None of it felt right. But the damage had already been done, Jo already had this thing for me."

Buffy scoffed, "do you expect me to feel sorry for you? You _chose_ to push me away, and lead Jo on. And then, while you'd been sleeping with every bar floozy you could get your hands on, you decided to get your panties in a twist over Spike."

"You slept with a _vampire_," Dean said through gritted teeth, trying to keep his cool.

"Like that matters!"

"Of course it frigging matters!" Dean shouted, his anger getting the best of him. He took a couple of deep breaths before walking over and putting his hands on Buffy's shoulders, "look I'm sorry. I'm never going to stop being sorry, you know that. And, I'm sorry about Jo, I am, but I can't go back in time and stop me from being an idiot. You and I, we got our issues, and I wish we could spend the time sorting them out, but tomorrow we go looking for Lucifer, and we might die. I don't wanna do that fighting with you."

Buffy looked torn. She still had so much anger directed at Dean, but she had so much love too. He was right, they could die tomorrow. She certainly didn't want this fight the last thing they did together. "You're right," she agreed, watching happiness light up in his eyes. She pulled him down for a long kiss. "But when, and I mean when, not if, we survive tomorrow, you have a lot to make up for," she finished, kissing him again, "two years to make up for."

Dean smiled, "I think I can do that, Princess.

* * *

They arrived in Carthage the next day to find the town completely empty. The Winchesters left the girls and Castiel to go find the police station.

"This place ain't feelin empty," Faith said, rubbing her arms, trying to get rid of the goosebumps crawling over her.

"That's because it's not," Castiel replied.

"What do you mean?" Jo asked.

"The town's not empty," Castiel replied, looking around, "Reapers."

"As in, more than one?" Buffy asked, looking around her. Her Slayer senses were picking up the reapers, but not being able to see them was giving her the wiggins.

"They only gather like this at times of great catastrophe. Chicago Fire, San Francisco Quake, Pompeii. Excuse me, I need to find out why they're here."

Not long after Castiel leaving, the Winchesters found the girls.

"Station's empty," Dean explained

"So's everything else." Jo replied.

"Have you seen Cas?" Ellen asked.

Sam was shocked when he replied, "what? He was with you.

"Nope. He went after the reapers."

"Reapers?" Dean asked.

"He saw reapers? Where?" Sam asked.

"Well, kind of everywhere." Jo explained.

The boys looked at each other with apprehension, before continuing to search the town, discussing if Cas was okay.

"There you are."

Everyone turned to find a sweet looking blonde girl.

"Who are you?" Dean demanded.

"Oh that's right, you don't know me in this meat suit. I had to change it up for your baby sis," she nodded towards Buffy.

At the mention of Dawn, Buffy moved forward, but Dean being suspicious held her back, "Meg?"

"10 points for you, sport." She said, with a smile, "shouldn't have come here, boys."

"Hell, I could say the same thing about you," Dean replied, raising the Colt.

"Dean, no!" Buffy shouted, pushing his arm away, "she knows where Dawn is," she finished, taking a step towards the demon.

"Tell your girlfriend to back off, I didn't come alone, Deano." Next to Meg, the sound of feet hitting a puddle and the sound of growls warned the group of their new enemy.

"Hellhounds."

"Yeah, Dean. Your favourite. Come on, boys, Slayers. My father wants to see you."

"I think we'll pass, thanks." Sam replied, with a nod from Buffy and Faith.

"Your call. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard."

Dean looked back at Ellen and Jo, Buffy and Faith, receiving nods from all of them, "when have you known us to ever make anything easy?" he replied, causing Meg to shake her head in disappointment. Dean raised his arm, shooting at the hellhounds, causing blood to spurt.

"Run!" Sam shouted, causing everyone to run. Before getting far, a hellhound tackled Dean to the ground, causing Buffy and Jo to shout his name.

"No! Get back!"

Buffy ignored Dean's cry, running towards him, tackling the dog off him, throwing it away, before grabbing Dean and pulling him up. Jo had figured out the location of the dog and started firing her shotgun, pushing the dog further back.

"Jo! Stay back!" Dean shouted, as another hound crashed into Jo's side.

"No!" Ellen screamed running back for her daughter, just to watch Jo's body being ripped apart by giant claws.

Buffy let go of Dean to charge at the new attacker. Estimating where the beasts head would be, she dragged it off Jo, wrapping her arms around its neck. With a great deal of effort, Buffy jerked her body, snapping the hellhounds neck.

Without missing a beat, Buffy and Faith ran to Jo's side, picking her up, and running as fast as they could without jostling the girl. They ran into one of the nearest stores, boarding up the doors and finding salt as quickly as they could, to protect themselves from their enemy.

While the others were making sure the dogs couldn't get in, Buffy and Ellen stayed with Jo trying to bandage her up. "Gonna be alright," Ellen murmured, mostly to reassure herself.

Over on the other side of the store, Dean and Sam assessed their situation.

"Salt lines are holding up," Sam remarked.

"Safe for now."

"Safer. Trapped like rats."

Dean looked intently at his brother, "hey, you heard Meg. Her father's here. This is our one shot, Sammy. We gotta take it, no matter what." Dean paused, waiting for disagreement from Sam, not receiving any he continued, "here we go."

"Sam, come help here, please?" Ellen called.

As Sam walked away, Dean looked at his surroundings, finding an old radio. Knowing their cell phones probably wouldn't be worth a damn, Dean picked up the microphone to find help.

"K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, come in."

Within moments Bobby's voice sounded through the speakers, "K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, go ahead."

"Bobby, it's Dean. We got problems."

Bobby's sigh could be heard clearly through the speakers, "It's okay, boy. That's why I'm here. Is everyone all right?"

"No. It's—it's—it's Jo. Bobby, it's pretty bad."

"Okay. Copy that. So now we figure out what we do next."

"Bobby, I don't think she's—" He couldn't bring himself to finish that thought.

"I said, what do we do next, Dean?"

Dean leaned his head on his hand for a moment, "Right. Okay, right."

"Now, tell me what you got."

After being explained the situation, Bobby asked, "Before he went missing, did Cas say how many reapers?"

"I don't—he said a lot of things, I guess. Does the number matter?"

"Devil's in the details, Dean."

Hearing the conversation, Ellen came over to tap Dean on the shoulder with a bloody hand and grabbed the microphone, "Bobby, it's Ellen. The way he was looking, the number of places Castiel's eyes went, I'd say we're talking over a dozen reapers, probably more."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Nobody likes the sound of that, Bobby, but what—wh—what does that sound like?" Dean asked.

"It sounds like death, son. I think Satan's in town to work a ritual." On Bobby's side the sound of pages rustling came through. "I think he's planning to unleash Death."

"You mean, like, as in this dude and taxes are the only sure thing?"

"As in Death. The horseman. The pale rider in the flesh."

"Unleash? I mean, hasn't Death been tromping all over the place? Hell, I've died several times myself."

"Not this guy. This is—this is the angel of death. Big daddy reaper. They keep this guy chained in a box six hundred feet under. Last time they hauled him up, Noah was building a boat. That's why the place is crawling with reapers. They're waiting on the big boss to show."

"You have any other good news?"

"In a manner of speaking," Books and paper shuffling were heard in the back ground before Bobby continued, "I been researching Carthage since you've been gone, trying to suss out what the devil might want there. What you just said drops the last piece of the puzzle in place. The angel of death must be brought into this world at midnight through a place of awful carnage. Now, back during the Civil War, there was a battle in Carthage. A battle so intense the soldiers called it the Battle of Hellhole."

"Where'd the massacre go down?"

"On the land of William Jasper's farm."

The boys start moving back towards Jo, as Ellen comforted her wounded daughter "that's my girl, you're okay, honey."

"Now we know where the devil's gonna be, we know when, and we have the Colt." Dean said to Sam.

"Yeah. We just have to get past eight or so hellhounds and get to the farm by midnight," Sam replied.

"Yeah, and that's after we get Jo and Ellen the hell out of town."

"Won't be easy."

"Stretcher?"

"I'll see what we got," Sam started to search before being stopped by Jo.

"Stop. Guys, stop," she winced out, "Can we, uh, be realistic about this, please?" she asked, as everyone started to gather around her, "uh! I can't move my legs. I can't be moved. My guts are being held in by an ace bandage. We gotta—we gotta get our priorities straight here. Number one, I'm not going anywhere."

Ellen stopped her from going further, "Joanna Beth, you stop talking like that."

"Mom. I can't fight. I can't walk. But I can do something. We got propane, wiring, rock salt, iron nails, everything we need."

"Everything we need?" Sam asked.

"To build a bomb, Sam."

"No. Jo, no," Dean replied, having figured out what she was implying.

"You got another plan? You got any other plan? Those are hellhounds out there, Dean. They've got all of our scents. Those bitches will never stop coming after you. We let the dogs in, you guys hit the roof, make a break for the building next over. I can wait here with my finger on the button, rip those mutts a new one. Or at least get you a few minutes' head start, anyway."

For the first time since entering the building, Buffy spoke up, "absolutely not."

"Excuse me?" Jo asked, annoyed that Buffy put her idea down so bluntly.

Buffy leaned down to Jo's level, "you are not going to die, I won't let you."

"I don't see you having much of a choice," she replied, angrily.

Buffy got back up, and looked towards Faith who followed her sister Slayers train of thought, "Willow?" With Buffy's nod, Faith moved to the radio to try and contact the witch.

Buffy sat on her haunches, back at eye level with Jo, "I know you don't like me, but that's okay, you don't have to. But I'll be damned if I let one of ours die without trying to do something about it."

Before Jo could reply, Faith was back, "She's on her way."

Ellen was confused, "On her way? How? If you hadn't noticed, we're surrounded by hellhounds!"

A pop and a meek "Hi?" behind her caused Ellen to spin and raise her gun at the newly arrive red head.

"Woah," Willow said, raising her hands quickly.

"Ellen, it's alright, Willow's with us. She's a witch, but a good witch, I guess?" Sam tried to explain, not knowing how.

"You guess?" Willow said with a smile, "what's a girl got to do around here to be a good guy, jeez," as she finished speaking, she moved down to Jo. She quickly inspected the wound and turned to Buffy. "I can't fix this completely, and I can't transport with her. The best I can do is patch it up, she won't die right now but she'd still have to fight through the injuries."

Ellen had gotten closer to listen to the conversation, "really? You can do that?" the elation of her daughter's health was quickly lessened by who would help her, "but you're a witch. Your powers, they come from demons, I know they do."

Willow looked embarrassed before explaining, "ah, they did. Once. But now, my power comes from the Earth, Mother Gia and all that." She turned to face Ellen, "no dark magic will touch your daughter, I promise."

"Wait a minute, while I appreciate not dying, we need the bomb. We're trapped."

"Ohh you need something to go 'xplody? I can do that. Easy peasy," Willow said with a smile, placing her hands over the wound, "but-ah-with the healing, and the 'xplody, I might not be up for much. Like being conscious much. This is a pretty big wound," Willow explained, the toll of the healing already taking a toll, "you'll need to carry me out if you wanna move fast."

"No worries, Red, you get us out of here in one piece and I'll carry you all the way home," Faith said with a smile.

Willow smiled back before grimacing in pain and exhaustion, "That's the best I'll be able to do. We get her back to the school and we can patch her up better."

The others inspected the wound, noticing the blood had already lessoned, and colour had slightly come back to Jo's face. Jo looked up at the redhead in awe, "thank you," she whispered. Willow smiled in response and tried to move away, before being captured in a hug by Ellen.

"Oh! Well, thank you!" Willow said, slightly embarrassed.

Dean looked on in amazement, before turning to Sam, "all those times we stitch ourselves up, sat around with broken bones and torn ligaments, turns out all we needed was Glinda the Goodwitch here!" he finished gesturing towards Willow.

Sam laughed before being distracted by the growls outside, "alright we gotta get out of here, I'll take Jo. Let's get to the roof."

Once they were up on the safety of a roof, next to the store they had been trapped, Willow stood away from the others, eyes closed. Using her magic, she opened the store doors, letting the hellhounds in. With a quiet word, a flame appeared in her outstretched hands, within moments the ball was twice its size and getting bigger. With a quick movement, she flung the ball, which got bigger and bigger, as it flew to its target. The explosion as it hit was so large that it smashed the windows of the stores surrounding it, and caused everyone but the Slayers to be knocked to the ground.

"Willow!" Buffy screamed, rushing to her friend's side

"Go 'xplody?" Willow asked, barely conscious.

Buffy chuckled, "Yeah, Wills."

"Oh, good," Willow replied before going unconscious.

Faith quickly scooped her up and led them off the roof, back towards their cars.

"Look, you guys need to get the hell out of Dodge, Sam and I need to take care of something"

"Like Hell!" Buffy yelled at Dean, "That feathered freak has my sister, and I'm not leaving until I get her back.'

"Bossy one, ain't she," Ellen commented to Sam, causing them to both smirk.

Buffy turned to Faith, "take Ellen, Jo and Willow and get out of town. Wait for us, but if we're not back by dawn, get as far away as fast as possible. Get to Bobby's, and then head to the school."

Faith nodded, moving to place Willow in the front seat of the car.

Before she could turn away, Buffy's hand was caught by Jo, "Thank you," She whispered. Her wound had begun healing but the pain had taken its toll, making her weak.

"Anytime," Buffy said with a nod. She turned back to the boys, "alrighty, let's do this."

* * *

Without them realising, darkness had surrounded the trio, making the land seem eerie and dangerous. As they snuck through some bushes, they noticed dozens of men standing in the field. Waiting.

"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople," Dean remarked quietly.

"Last words?" Sam asked, mostly to Dean.

"I think I'm good." Dean replied.

"Yeah. Me too."

Buffy watched the scene and rolled her eyes, "God you too are drama queens," she whispered, "you aren't going to die," she stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I'm not going to let you."

The Winchester boys grinned, "ya know, I actually believe you," Sam said with a smile.

"As you should," she replied snootily before continuing to their destination.

"Here goes nothing," Dean added, following her.

They walked forwards, finding Lucifer filling a hole with dirt.

Sam surged forward, shouting "hey" to grab his attention, readying his shotgun, "you wanted to see me?"

"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here. You know I'd never hurt you. Not really."

Dean came forward, "yeah? Well, I'd hurt you," Dean raised the Colt and aimed it at and shooting Lucifer point blank. "So suck it."

With the bullet embedded in his body, Lucifer dropped to the ground. The trio looked at the body in shock.

They did it. They killed the devil.

Before the had time time to celebrate, the body moved. "Owww," Lucifer said, standing up and moving towards Dean, "where did you get that?" he asked, not waiting for a reply before punching Dean and sending him sailing into a nearby tree.

"Dean!" Buffy screamed, going over to check on her lover.

Turning back to Sam, Lucifer smiled, "now, where were we?" Lucifer moved back towards the hole and his dropped shovel, "don't feel too bad, Sam. There's only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them. But if you give me a minute, I'm almost done."

With a quick swipe, Lucifer picked up the shovel and continued to move the dirt, while Sam went over to check on his unconscious brother. "You know, I don't suppose you'd just say yes here and now?

Sam stood facing the devil, not replying

"End this whole tiresome discussion? That's crazy, right?"

"It's never gonna happen!" Sam replied angrily.

"Oh, I don't know, Sam. I think it will. I think it'll happen soon. Within six months. And I think it'll happen in Detroit."

"You listen to me, you son of a bitch. I'm gonna kill you myself, you understand me? I'm going to rip your heart out!"

"That's good, Sam. You keep fanning that fire in your belly. All that pent-up rage. I'm gonna need it," Lucifer replied calmly.

Having visibly calmed himself, Sam asked, "what did you do? What did you do to this town?"

"Oh, I was very generous with this town. One demon for every able-bodied man."

"And the rest of them?" Sam demanded.

Lucifer briefly paused before continuing, "in there. I know, it's awful, but these horsemen are so demanding. So it was women and children first. I know what you must think of me, Sam. But I have to do this. I have to. You of all people should understand."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Dropping his shovel, Lucifer explained, "I was a son. A brother, like you, a younger brother, and I had an older brother who I loved. Idolized, in fact. And one day I went to him and I begged him to stand with me, and Michael—Michael turned on me. Called me a freak. A monster. And then he beat me down. All because I was different. Because I had a mind of my own. Tell me something, Sam. Any of this sound familiar? Anyway. You'll have to excuse me. Midnight is calling and I have a ritual to finish. Don't go anywhere. Not that you could if you would."

Going back to Dean, Sam shared a worried look with Buffy, before noticing the movement of his brother. Slowly Dean gained consciousness, looking at the spectacle around him.

Lucifer continued, "Now repeat after me. We offer up our lives, blood, souls-" With each word he uttered, the demons around him repeated. Once they had spoken the ritual, one by one the demons flashed gold, signalling their deaths. The Winchesters and Buffy watched the mass murder of his own people with shock.

Lucifer noticed and added, "What? They're just demons."

The ground begins to rumble, causing Buffy and the boys to panic. Castiel quickly appearede, set to take them to safety. Before he could lay a hand on Buffy, she moved out of his grasp towards Lucifer.

Yelling over the rumbles, Buffy got his attention, "Where is my sister?!" She shouted.

Lucifer quickly turned, "Why, Buffy. How rude of me, I was so caught up with my favourite Winchester, I didn't notice my favourite Slayer, how are you?"

"I'll be better when you give me back my sister."

The reply made him laugh, "now why would I do that? She's my safety vessel, I need her around in case Sam decides to keep being difficult."

"Take me instead," she shouted over the rumbles.

"Buffy, no!" Dean shouted, getting off the ground towards her.

Lucifer looked at the blonde Slayer with interest, raising a hand to halt Dean's movement. "You'd become my vessel?"

"I didn't say that, but if you let my sister go, I'll come with you." Buffy knew that the deal was one sided, that Lucifer would be smart in keep a vessel that didn't need to say yes, but she needed to try. "Please," she begged, "let her go."

Lucifer considered for a minute, "okay!"

Dean struggled against his hold, "Buffy no don't do this!" He screamed.

She looked back at him, "I'm sorry Dean, I really am," she stared at his face for a long moment before moving to stand next to Lucifer. Once she was beside him, he clicked his fingers, causing Dawn to appear beside Castiel, and with another click, Buffy was gone.

Before he had a chance to react, Dean had been grabbed by Castiel and with him Sam and Dawn, taken to safety.

With a smile, Lucifer walked forward, "Oh, hello, Death.

* * *

"Fuck!" Dean screamed, slamming his fist into Bobby's wall, causing a wide hole to appear.

They had arrived back at Bobby's, with Faith and the others being picked up by Cas quickly afterwards.

"Dawn!" Faith yelled, coming over to hug the young girl. Pulling back she noticed Buffy missing. "Where's Buffy?"

"She switched places with me," Dawn said meekly, "that's what happened, wasn't it?" she asked Sam.

He nodded sadly.


End file.
